Vladimir Kara-Murza arrested in Moscow after CNN interview criticizing Putin

The 40-year-old Putin critic survived two poisonings, in 2015 and 2017, that he said were orchestrated by the Kremlin in retaliation for his advocacy of Western sanctions against the Russian government.

Russia has denied that it was the source of the poisonings, which left Kara-Murza in a coma both times. But investigations by independent organizations found that he had been followed by members of the same federal agency that allegedly poisoned jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and at least three other opposition figures.

His wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, demanded his immediate release in a tweet late Monday. “Twice have the Russian authorities tried to kill my husband for advocating for sanctions against thieves and murderers,” she wrote, “and now they want to throw him in prison for calling their bloody war a WAR.”

Kara-Murza is a longtime colleague of the late Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated outside the Kremlin in 2015. Kara-Murza is an author, a documentary director and former candidate for the Russian parliament, and he served as deputy leader of a political organization, the People’s Freedom Party.

He played a key role in getting the United States, European Union, Canada and Britain to adopt sanctions laws in 2012, known as the Magnitsky Act, that target individuals in Russia and elsewhere who are complicit in human rights violations.

Kara-Murza has written dozens of columns critical of the Russian government for The Post’s Global Opinions section over the past few years — including one decrying the Kremlin’s recent crackdown on independent media and dissent. The Russian parliament last month enacted a law imposing prison sentences of up to 15 years for spreading what it considers “fake” news about the military, including calling the invasion of Ukraine an “invasion.”

“One after another, media outlets that dared to report honestly on Putin’s assault on Ukraine had their signals cut off and their websites blocked,” Kara-Murza wrote on March 7.

The Post’s publisher, Fred Ryan, released a statement Tuesday praising Kara-Murza’s courage. “Following poisonings and other grave threats, this outrageous detention is the latest move in Vladimir Putin’s ongoing effort to silence Kara-Murza and hide the truth about the atrocities Putin is committing in the Russian people’s name,” Ryan said. “No one should be deceived by the Russian government’s trumped-up charges and smears, and Kara-Murza should be released immediately.”

Kara-Murza was one of few dissidents to remain in Russia after the war and media crackdown. “The biggest gift … we could give to the Kremlin would be for those of us who are in opposition…