On the eve of an appearance before PACE in Strasbourg next week, recently released Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza has described his experience of two-and-a-half years of detention in Russia during a 20-minute conversation with PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos.
In the first edition of “Round table with the President”, a brand new video podcast in which Dr Rousopoulos hosts leading figures who act to uphold Council of Europe values, Mr Kara-Murza said of Vladimir Putin: “He’s not a President. He’s a usurper, he’s a dictator, he’s a murderer.”
Mr Kara-Murza, who was awarded the 2022 Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize while in prison, will address the Assembly on Monday 30th September ahead of a ceremony to award the latest edition of the Prize, a highlight of the PACE autumn plenary session.
During the podcast, recorded recently in Paris, Mr Kara-Murza recalled: “For delivering five public speeches - two against the war in Ukraine, two against political repression in Russia and one about the illegitimacy of Putin’s regime - I received a sentence of 25 years in prison.”
He continued: “I sat in a small cell, two by three metres wide. I could only walk in a small circle. You’re allowed to write only for 90 minutes a day. During those two and a half years, I was able to talk only once to my wife Evgenia and twice to my kids. I was not allowed to call my daughter on her 18th birthday though,” he says.
“Although it still feels like a miracle being free after the prisoner exchange that took place, there are still hundreds and hundreds of political prisoners who are left behind, who still wake at five o’clock in the morning, who can still only walk in circles in their cells… Let’s not forget about them. Let’s continue to speak for them.”
Further episodes of “Round table with the President” will be posted soon on the Assembly’s website and social media platforms, and in due course on relevant podcast platforms.