Good morning, dear reader,
have you ever sat in the dock of a courtroom? I haven’t yet, but I’m sure I’d be very tense: all eyes are on you. “Was he or wasn’t he?” ask the people in the hall. What verdict will the judge give?
Against this background, the words of Wladimir Kara-Mursa seem somewhat relaxed: “I sign every word I said and of which I am accused today in this indictment,” the 41-year-old is said to have said against him before the verdict was pronounced. He also shows no remorse, on the contrary, he is proud of his actions.
Kara-Mursa is a brave man. In recent months he has repeatedly criticized Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This week he received his verdict: 25 years in a Russian penal camp. He was accused of alleged high treason and discrediting the Russian army. Never before has a Russian opposition figure been given such a harsh sentence. As a reminder: The world-famous Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is currently serving a nine-year sentence.
And yet, or maybe even because of this: Kara-Mursa took his verdict with a certain pride. “25 years – that’s the highest possible score I could get for doing what I believe in as a citizen, as a patriot, as a politician,” he said after the verdict, according to his attorney. During his detention alone, he is said to have lost around 20 kilos in weight, and he also suffers from a nervous disease. 25 years of penal camps almost sound like a slowly executed death sentence.
The case of Kara-Mursa shocked. And yet it is just one example of the second war being waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The scenes of this struggle are not the streets, fields or trenches of Ukraine, but Russian courtrooms, police interrogation rooms and dark prison cells. Like any autocrat, the Russian president finds it increasingly difficult to take criticism for his own mistakes. That’s why he hits harder and harder in Russia. Those who do not swallow the state war propaganda should be silenced.
Long before his conviction, the 41-year-old’s life was a kind Best of collection of atrocitieswhich the Russian power apparatus has ready for members of the opposition. The politician was once a close confidant of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in 2015. A poison attack was carried out on Kara-Mursa only a few months later, followed two years later by the next, which led to his nervous illness. Media research suggests that both attacks involved people who worked for the Russian secret service FSB. They are said to have later poisoned Navalny as well. Kara-Mursa’s sentencing now seemed almost like an act of revenge. The judge responsible was once put on a US sanctions list at his insistence.
But it is no longer just prominent Russian critics who can find themselves in the regime’s crosshairs. The American journalist has been sitting since the end of March Evan Gershkovich after his arrest in Ekaterinburg in custody. The accusation: alleged espionage. No evidence has been provided so far. A complaint against his detention was rejected yesterday in Moscow. He also faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
For Putin, people like Gershkovich are nothing more than bargaining chips. It has long been speculated that the 32-year-old could sooner or later be exchanged for a Russian prisoner in the United States. Similar to the Brittney Griner case: The basketball player was sentenced to nine years in prison last year in Russia for half a gram of hash oil found in her luggage at the airport. After ten months, the 32-year-old was free again – in exchange for a Russian arms dealer.
Griner’s example also shows that the principles of the rule of law no longer have any meaning in Russia. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight: just yesterday, further proceedings were initiated against Alexei Navalny. An alleged “disruption to operations” in his prison could earn him up to five more years there. His health is also bad. Most recently, it was said by his lawyers that he was suffering from an unknown illness. The already emaciated opposition member is said to have lost eight kilos again.
80 years after the catastrophe
It is a great honor for Federal President Frank Walter Steinmeier. Today, on the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he will be the first German head of state to give a speech. During the four weeks of fighting, in which the Jewish population fought back against the Nazi occupiers, around 56,000 Jews were shot or deported.
“To this day it is a miracle that Jews and Poles even shook hands with us Germans after the crimes of our ancestors,” said Steinmeier before leaving for Poland. He will attend the commemoration ceremony along with his counterparts from Poland and Israel, Andrzej Duda and Izchak Herzog. Steinmeier will give his speech at the monument to the heroes of the ghetto. There, where Chancellor Willy Brandt once kneeled down asking for forgiveness.
