US lawmakers urge release of Russia critic Kara-Murza on the anniversary of his imprisonment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress on Tuesday called for the immediate release of Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. as lawmakers marked the second anniversary of his imprisonment, part of the Kremlin’s sweeping crackdown on critics of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The bottom line is that Vladimir Kara-Murza will not be forgotten,” Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at an event on Capitol Hill. “We are going to work to set him free and to set Russia free.”

Kara-Murza, a journalist and opposition activist, was jailed in April 2022 and convicted of treason last year for denouncing the war in Ukraine. He is serving 25 years, the stiffest sentence handed down to a Kremlin critic in modern Russia. He is among a growing number of dissidents held in increasingly severe conditions under President Vladimir Putin’s political crackdown.

Cardin was joined by a bipartisan group of members from both the House and Senate, seeking to increase the pressure not only on Russian authorities to force the release of Kara-Murza, but to ensure that the Biden administration continues working to force his release as the U.S. has done in previous cases of Russian political prisoners.

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