“I was absolutely convinced I was going to die in that Siberian prison,” said Vladimir Kara-Murza during a visit to the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.
DALLAS — Vladimir Kara-Murza has always been one to speak his mind. That’s part of what got him a 25-year sentence in a Russian prison.
And now, two months after his release from a Siberian gulag in a historic prisoner swap, the Russian-British political activist is still speaking his truth to anyone, and any country, who will listen.
“I’m feeling totally surreal as if I’ve been watching some kind of movie for these past several weeks,” Kara-Murza said to WFAA during his visit to Dallas as a guest of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU. “Because I was absolutely convinced I was going to die in that Siberian prison.”
The political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker was already an ardent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin when in April of 2022 he was arrested for speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and charged with treason and discrediting the military.
In August 2024 he was one of 16 political prisoners, including American Paul Whelan, and one of seven Russian political prisoners, released in exchange for eight Putin confidants who were held in the U.S. and abroad on charges ranging from espionage to murder.
“The war in Ukraine and repression in Russia have broken up, separated and destroyed millions and millions of families,” said Evgenia Kara-Murza, International Advocacy Director of the Free Russia Foundation where Vladimir Kara-Murza also serves as vice president. “So we are among those lucky ones who are still blessed with having each other,” she said of her husband. “And that is something that I will forever be grateful for.”
“It was a miracle is the only way I can describe it, Vladimir Kara-Murza said of his release. “But it was in so many ways a human-made miracle.”
The duo continues to speak at events across the United States and across the world to plead for the additional miracles they still believe are possible.
“And we know that major political changes in Russia happen like this,” Kara-Murza said while snapping his fingers. “Suddenly, unexpectedly. Nobody is ever ready for them.” Trained as a historian, he believes change in Russia will come just as quickly again.
“The only way Europe can finally become truly whole, free, and at peace with itself, is with a democratic Russia. And that is the goal that we all should be working towards,” he said. “And international public opinion is, at the end of the day, stronger than any dictatorship can hope to be.”
Kara-Murza recounted a story he has told before, how when on the airplane that carried him away from his Siberian prison, a Russian FSB agent seated next to him told him to look out the window because he would never see his home country again.
Vladimir Kara-Murza says he laughed in the man’s face.
“I told him I’m a historian. I not only think, I not only believe, I know that I will be back in Russia in my home country and that’s going to happen much quicker than you can ever imagine.”
Vladimir and Evgenia Kara-Murza and their three children now make their home in Washington, D.C.. The couple travels weekly to make invited appearances and speeches to pro-democracy organizations. Monday morning in Dallas they were the guests of President and Mrs. Bush.
And as Texans gathered in long lines at polling places Monday on the first day of early voting, they admitted to a heavy dose of envy. In Putin’s Russia, there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, and no free and fair elections.
“I’m jealous. Honestly, we’re very envious,” admitted Evegenia Kara-Murza. “All the freedoms have been taken away from the Russian people.”
“We haven’t had a free and fair election in 25 years,” said Vladimir Kara-Murza. “I would say value it. Use it. And never take it for granted.”
Because they are still fighting for that freedom in the country they hope to again, someday, call home.