The verdict will fall this Monday, April 17, at 4 p.m., in Moscow, but Evgenia Kara-Murza has few illusions for her husband. Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of Putin’s main opponents, already poisoned twice in 2015 and 2017, faces twenty-five years in prison. Detained for a year, this journalist – who received the Václav-Havel Prize in 2022 – is accused of “high treason”, spreading “false information” and working for an “undesirable” organization. “This trial, held behind closed doors, was expedited, like the Soviet trials”, testifies to L’Express his wife, exiled in the United States with her three children. From Washington, she continues the fight of “Vladimir” and wants to believe, like him, that the collapse of the Russian regime is near. “If that day comes, we will have no room for error: we will have to examine our conscience to understand and carry out the crimes committed, often with the silent complicity of the people.” Interview.
L’Express: What news do you have of your husband, detained for a year?
Evgenia Kara-Murza: Until now, Vladimir was detained in detention center No. 5 in Moscow. People often ask me where he gets his strength from: to tell the truth, I have no idea. There are so many! He survived two poisonings in 2015 and 2017, which each time put him in a coma. These assassination attempts were carried out by FSB agents, the same ones who had followed the opponent Boris Nemtsov [NDLR : abattu en 2015 à deux pas du Kremlin] and poisoned Alexei Navalny. Following his first poisoning, he developed polyneuropathy syndrome, a disease that affects the nerves. After a year in detention and several passages in the disciplinary cell, his symptoms returned. His right foot is affected and he has difficulty walking. His daily life is one of infinite sadness. He does not live, he survives. Even the walks to which he is entitled, one hour a day, take place in a small covered courtyard, where he cannot see the sky. He is not allowed to sit on the bed during the day. It’s a very strict diet.
“For many people, my husband is a new Mandela. But for me, Vladimir is above all my husband and the father of my children, a man who lost 22 kilos in one year.””
Despite everything, he is still very strong in spirit. Many people tell me about his last speech in court on April 10 [“Non seulement je ne me repens pas, mais j’en suis fier (…) Je ne me reproche qu’une chose : au cours de mes années d’activité politique, je n’ai pas réussi à convaincre suffisamment de mes compatriotes et suffisamment d’hommes politiques des pays démocratiques du danger que le régime actuel du Kremlin représente pour la Russie et pour le monde.”]. For many, he is a new Mandela. But for me, it’s hard to see him only as this symbol of the struggle for freedom. For me, Vladimir is above all my husband and the father of my children, the man with whom I dreamed of raising my children. And now ? He will be locked up for a quarter of a century… In one year of detention, he has already lost 22 kilos. I fear for his life.
Why did your husband wish, in spite of all the risks, to remain absolutely in his country?
It’s a matter of principle. It was inadmissible for him to call on Russian citizens to continue the protests while being in a place where he risked nothing, from a distance. Staying in Russia gives him the right to address his fellow citizens to talk to them about the resistance, precisely because he shares the same risks as them.
Do you understand this choice?
It’s a very difficult question, but I realize that I am married to a true Russian patriot, in the pure sense of the word. Unfortunately, the word patriotism has been manipulated into dire contexts. In Russia today, being patriotic means defending aggression against Ukraine.
For my husband, being a patriot has nothing to do with these horrors. It means wanting a better future for his country, for the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens to be respected, for Russia to be perceived on the international scene as a true partner. In short, that Russia becomes a democracy.
Many analysts believe that even today, a majority of the Russian population supports Putin’s regime. What do you think ?
I beg you, don’t trust the polls in Russia! In this quasi-totalitarian state, most people are afraid to answer, they know very well that they risk being detained and repressed if they say what they think. Don’t forget that we are talking about a country where citizens have been deprived of all the rights guaranteed by democracies for almost two decades. There is no freedom of speech, freedom of the press, no free elections, freedom of association. In short, there is no democratic instrument that could help us assess the state of Russian society. Today, the regime uses the entire repressive arsenal of the Soviets: physical and sexual violence, arbitrary imprisonment, punitive psychiatry… And their latest invention? Deprivation of parental rights: People whom the Russian authorities consider incapable of raising good Russian citizens and soldiers may be deprived of their parental rights. Several cases have already been reported.
Under this leaden screed, resistance smolders. The fact that more than 20,000 people have been detained, that hundreds of thousands of people have left the country not to take part in this war, proves in my view that millions of Russians are in fact opposed to this war but are afraid to speak. Another unmistakable sign: all the independent media that still functioned in Russia have been closed: Echo of Moscow radio, Dojd television and the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. In addition, the authorities have blocked more than 200,000 independent online media. 200,000!
Last year, Russia was one of the top countries for the number of VPNs installed on Russians’ individual devices [NDLR : le VPN, un logiciel masquant l’adresse IP d’un ordinateur ou d’un téléphone, permet d’accéder à des sites censurés]. It shows that a lot of people understand what’s going on and want to be informed. One more sign that opposition to Putin’s policies is much greater in Russia than what is seen from the outside. Putin wants to create this distorted image of reality that all Russian people support him and his war of aggression against Ukraine.
So there are still opponents in Russia who are not in prison?
Every day there are new detentions, new criminal proceedings, new administrative investigations to control Russian citizens in all regions. There are no mass protests, it’s true. In a totalitarian state, you very rarely see mass protests and when they do happen, like in Belarus in 2020-2021, they end in bloodshed. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t resistance. For example, in all regions, government offices are set on fire. There are also local initiatives to deconstruct the discourse of the state and convince people to support projects for Ukrainian refugees or participate in the reconstruction of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Organizations abroad participate, such as the Anti-War Committee of Russia. The Free Russia Foundation, of which I am a member, organized the evacuation of 20,000 Ukrainians to safety at the start of the war. In Russia, other organizations participate clandestinely in this type of project.
Russian opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza, arrested in April 2022, lost 22 kilos in detention according to his wife.
© / AFP
How do you pursue your husband’s fight from Washington?
I continue the advocacy work started by my husband to support political prisoners in Russia and make sure the world understands that Putin’s aggression against Ukraine and the repressions inside Russia are closely linked. Vladimir Putin is in fact at war with two countries: he wants to destroy both Ukraine and what remains of civil society in Russia.
The only possibility for Russia to no longer be a danger to itself and to others is to become a democracy.
How ?
We must weaken the regime as much as possible. This first requires unconditional support for Ukraine, which is fighting for itself but also for the democratic values of the whole world. Ukraine must receive all the support it asks for and emerge victorious from this war unconditionally, without ceding a single square centimeter of territory to Vladimir Putin. Under no circumstances should the West accept such a concession to “end this war” or “appease” Putin. Because satisfying dictators never leads to anything. Putin will attack again. And if it’s not Ukraine, next time it’s going to be Moldova or some other country.
Secondly, the arsenal of sanctions against the Russian regime must be strengthened in order to weaken the country’s economy. The people who claim sanctions don’t work are the same people who did business with Putin. We must therefore send a very clear message to Putin: the criminals will be held accountable for their actions. And through targeted sanctions, we are also sending a message of solidarity to Russians who oppose the regime to tell them that Westerners do not confuse the regime and the Russian people.
“We completely missed the exit from communism. If Putin’s regime ever collapses, we can’t make that mistake again”
Finally, if the democratic world wants Russia to become a democracy one day, it is essential to support those Russian citizens who continue to oppose the regime despite all its atrocities. Because it is these people, inside and outside Russia, who will rebuild our country. This involves supporting independent journalists who have been forced to leave the country, giving them legal status and financial assistance, as their accounts have often been frozen in Russia. It is also about helping organizations that continue to expose the atrocities of this regime.
Do you hope to one day experience a democratic Russia?
Today, events are unfolding at a much faster pace than during the Soviet years. This gives us hope that the collapse of this regime is near. My husband, Vladimir, is a historian by training. He has a habit of recalling that any dictatorship ends one day. Dictators think they’re invincible, but they all end up very similarly, actually. This is not optimism, this is historical fact.
This does not mean that Putin and his mafia will fall naturally. No, we must do everything so that this day arrives as soon as possible. Besides, Vladimir Putin is not the only problem. He built a vertical power system, a personalized dictatorship. To build a democratic Russia, this vertical must collapse.
Some intellectuals draw a parallel between the fall of the USSR and the possible collapse of the Russian regime. How to avoid the pitfalls of post-communism?
We completely missed the exit from communism. In my opinion, one of the major faults was the absence of public trials which would have made it possible to understand and expiate the crimes committed during the Soviet era. There was no “lustration” process. Consequently, the Soviet people, fed on propaganda, did not understand anything during this period. If we have a chance to rebuild our country one day, if Putin’s regime collapses, we must not commit this mistake again. Only this examination of conscience to understand and realize the crimes committed by this regime and the previous ones, often with the silent complicity of the people, will allow our collective recovery. Without it, we will never be able to rebuild anything.