Freed Russian opposition leader and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza says the country’s invasion of Ukraine must not be allowed to succeed. He is calling for positive democratic change in Russia.
Kara-Murza spoke to reporters on Friday after meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London.
Kara-Murza was one of the people released in a large-scale prisoner exchange last month. He had been serving his 25-year prison sentence after being convicted of treason for denouncing Moscow’s invasion.
In May, he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary he wrote from his prison cell.
Since his release he has been visiting Western countries to advocate for political prisoners detained in Russia and its ally Belarus.
Kara-Murza told reporters that while he was in prison, he received thousands of letters every month from all over Russia showing solidarity with him.
He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration of using propaganda to try to depress and demoralize people and pretend that “everyone is for the war.”
Kara-Murza stressed that Putin “must not be allowed to win the war in Ukraine.”
He said, “If you look at the last couple of centuries of Russian history, we have seen that failed wars of aggression have always served as triggers of political change and political democratization.”
He called for establishing a truly democratic political system based on fair elections to replace Putin’s administration after the invasion ends.