The wife of a jailed Russian dissident has revealed how Vladimir Putin’s thugs twice tried to kill her husband, when he was jailed for 25 years.
Vladimir Kara-Murza was charged with treason for speaking out about war in ukraine but wife Evgenia insists her husband will not give up his struggle.
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Kara-Murza, 41 years old, holder of both Russian and British passport, was sentenced in a court in Moscow today after condemning Putin catastrophic war.
Evgenia recently spoke to The Sun Online in Vilnius, Lithuania and describes how her husband survived two assassination attempts, which she believes were carried out at the behest of the tyrant.
“He was poisoned twice with a foreign substance. Both times happened in Moscow,” she said.
“He suddenly developed very strange symptoms and ended up in a coma with multiple organ failure.
“Both times he had a 5% chance of survival. He was lucky to survive thanks to the very dedicated team of doctors who treated him.”
His life’s struggles have led Kara-Murza to develop polyneuritis, a debilitating and life-threatening neurological disorder.
He later had to relearn how to perform simple tasks like buttoning his shirt and pouring tea, but both times he soon returned to work.
Vladimir Kara-Murza was born in Moscow, moved to England with his mother as a teenager and graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied history.
He has openly opposed Putin since the tyrant came to power in 2000 and is also a friend and ally of Boris Nemtsovand opposition leader shot dead near Red Square eight years ago.
He was abroad when the war broke out but returned to Russia to support anti-war protests but has been detained since his arrest.
The couple’s home is Washington and they have three children, aged 11, 14 and 17.
The Sun Online spoke to Evgenia as she spoke to one of the Russian dissidents and opposition figures who have made the city their home over the past year.
His wife outlined how Russian authorities have relentlessly pursued her husband for speaking out about the war in Ukraine.
To date, three criminal cases have been initiated against him, the first for spreading so-called fake news about the use of Russian armed forces in Ukraine.
“It is a law that was passed by the so-called Russian parliament in early March, just nine days after their full-scale invasion of Ukraine broke out,” she said.
“That law allows Russian authorities to jail people for up to 15 years for opposing war of any kind during the summer months.
“My husband was charged a second time for organizing an event in support of political prisoners at the Sakharov Center in Moscow in October 2021.
“And then in October, while I was in Strasbourg, to receive the Havel Human Rights Award on his behalf, he was accused of treason by the Russian authorities.
“This accusation is based on three public speeches he has made on various international platforms. He has spoken at NATO, at the US Congress and at Norway’s Helsinki Commission.
“He talked about the censorship of the media in Russia and the need to give the Russian people access to independent, objective information.
“He talked about political repression in Russia and the growing number of political prisoners and about the illegal nature of the so-called constitutional referendum that would allow Vladimir Putin to abolish the presidential terms. his former self and essentially rewrote the constitution, thus making himself a tsar.
“So now my husband is facing a severe regime of up to 24 years for high treason, because, as the official indictment states, the speeches my husband gave threaten the national security of the Russian Federation and damage the image of the Russian Federation in the world.
She added: “Anyone who opposes the official narrative, anyone who denounces the crimes that the Russian regime has committed against its own people and against our closest neighbours.
“Anyone who dares to stand up against Putin is seen as a foreign agent and traitor.”
However, she insists her jailed husband is not brave but “stubborn”.
“I lived with him for many years. He was stubborn,” she said.
That stubbornness extends to his refusal to leave his native Russia, despite assassinations in 2015 and 2017, allegedly carried out by FSB agents on Putin’s orders.
These agents are also believed to be behind the poisoning Alexei NavalnyAnother Russian dissident is now rotting in one of Putin’s prisons.
Evgenia says that stubbornness also comes from her husband’s true love for his country.
“My husband is a true patriotic Russian, and he has struggled for many years to bring change to our country,” she said.
A transcript of Kara-Murza’s final speech in court was released this week.
In it, he says he blames himself for only one thing – not having “convinced enough of my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger the current Kremlin regime poses to Russia and world”.
He also compared his situation to that of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, when Stalin was carrying out a series of repressive trials and purges of his political opponents.
“For me, as a historian, this is cause for reflection,” he said. “The criminals must repent of what they have done.
“On the other hand, I’m in prison for my political views. I also know that one day the darkness that covers our country will disappear.”
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