Brit political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza is freed from Russia in huge Cold War-style swap after TWICE dodging death

BRAVE British political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza has been finally freed from a Russian jail today as part of a historic swap deal.

The 42-year-old was serving a horrific 25-year prison sentence for “treason” where he managed to dodge death twice during his spell behind bars in a Siberian hellhole.

AP

His health was known to be frail after twice being poisoned by Putin’s brutal secret services who tried and failed to murder him.

The former political prisoner has both Russian and British citizenship, and his draconian prison sentence was due to his criticism of the Kremlin dictator and his war against Ukraine.

Innocent American journalist Evan Gershkovich was also finally freed.

Evan, 32, faced an outrageous 16 years in jail after a sham trial where he was wrongly accused by Vladimir Putin‘s crooked regime of collecting “secret information” for the CIA.

There were acute fears Kara-Murza would be the next prominent detainee to die after Putin foe Alexei Navalny, ‘murdered’ in his Arctic jail in February.

Human rights campaigner Sir Bill Browder – who personally knows Kara-Murza – had warned: “If he is not released soon, it is likely he will die in a Russian prison.”

He had called on Foreign Secretary David Lammy to fulfil his “moral and political duty to prioritise Vladimir’s release”.

His release is a significant victory for the new UK government.

There was acute concern last month when the prisoner vanished in a penal hospital with his lawyer unable to contact him.

Kara-Murza’s exiled wife Evgenia said: “For the sixth day, lawyers are illegally prevented from visiting Vladimir…

“He’s incommunicado, his health status is unknown.”

A dual Russian and British citizen, Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 after he slammed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for Western sanctions against the Putin regime.

He was sentenced in April 2023 in a “show trial” to a draconian 25 years in a maximum-security prison.

He refused to be gagged even after his arrest, speaking out after Navalny, 47, was found dead amid suspicions he was murdered on Putin’s orders.

“Vladimir Putin personally bears responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny,” he said.

“Because Alexei was his personal prisoner.

“And only on his personal orders could the poisoners from the 2nd FSB service act.”

He warned that Putin was a “vengeful, cowardly, greedy old man” who “still holds on with a death grip, destroying anyone in whom he sees a threat to his power.

“He must be stopped.

“And only Russian society itself can do this.”

Before he was led away to seat his grotesque 25 year sentence, he vowed: “Russia WILL be free, tell everyone”.

Kara-Murza is known to suffer from a nerve condition called polyneuropathy after surviving the two Putin poisoning attempts, and repeatedly voiced concerns about his health in prison.
Ahead of his hospitalisation last month, he was held in solitary confinement  for  more than 280 days in a row, and was not allowed to communicate with other prisoners – or his family.
His cruel treatment in IK-6 maximum security penal colony in Omsk region is believed to be on Putin’s orders in revenge for Kara-Murza’s criticisms of the dictator and his war.
The British citizen  was moved to regional hospital No. 11 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia.
Another jailed opposition politician Ilya Yashin, 41, has previously warned that Kara-Murza’s life is in jeopardy.
“The threat to his life is not only real, it is immense,” he said.

Sir Bill Browder, American-born English financier and political activist and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management.

Before his death, Navalny had said of Kara-Murza’s jailing:  “I saw him after the second poisoning and witnessed how his health was already almost destroyed.

“The term that he received is revenge for the fact that he did not die at the chosen time, having survived two poisonings…by the Russian FSB.”