Wife of jailed Putin critic says 25-year sentence is ‘recognition’ of his work

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The wife of Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza said on Monday that the 25-year prison sentence a Russian court handed him was recognition of the effectiveness of his work and showed that authorities fear him.

Evgenia Kara-Murza spoke at a Washington Post event about the sentence on charges of treason and other offenses Kara-Murza denies committing. State prosecutors also accused him of discrediting the Russian military after spreading “knowingly false information” about its conduct in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“I understand that this sentence is the high recognition of the effectiveness of Vladimir’s work,” she said at the event that was streamed online, alongside an attorney for her husband. “He has proven time and again that he would not back down, that he would not abandon his fight, that he would not betray his country and betray his ideals, that he would keep on fighting.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and an opposition politician who holds Russian and British passports, spent years speaking out against President Vladimir Putin and lobbied Western governments to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.

“This sentence shows that they’re so afraid of him and they hate him so much for his consistency, for his courage, for his amazing bravery,” she added.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; editing by Grant McCool)