Politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was charged with treason "for public speeches critical of the Russian authorities," TASS reports citing lawyer Vadim Prokhorov.
“Our client has been charged with three episodes of speaking critical of the Russian authorities at public events in Lisbon, Helsinki and Washington. These speeches did not carry any threat to the country, it was public, open criticism, ”TASS quotes Prokhorov.
The initiation of a new criminal case against Kara-Murza became known on October 6 from Prokhorov. This was also reported by the RT propaganda channel, citing its own sources. According to the channel's sources, according to the investigation, Kara-Murza, while working in Open Russia, "provided assistance to organizations from NATO member countries directed against the security of Russia."
Kara-Murza has been in a Moscow pre-trial detention center since April on charges of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army (part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code, punishable by a fine of up to 5 million rubles or imprisonment for up to 10 years).
During the arrest, the investigators were unable to explain exactly how Kara-Murza had discredited the army. The reason for the arrest was the possibility of his departure from the country and the fact that he had British citizenship.
According to the ruling, the case was initiated because of Kara-Murza's speech in the Arizona House of Representatives on March 15, 2022. The investigator drew conclusions based on the translation from English into Russian, but there is no information on the qualifications of the translator in the file.
On August 4, Kara-Murza was charged with carrying out the activities of an undesirable organization – for an event in support of political prisoners (part 1 of article 234.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Kara-Murza is accused of holding a conference in Moscow’s Sakharov Center on October 27, 2021 in support of Russian political prisoners with money from the non-governmental organization (NGO) Free Russia Foundation.