The Notebook with Bill Browder: The UK must do more to support Vladimir Kara-Murza
The Notebook is where the City’s big names talk what’s most important to them. This week: Hermitage Capital Management’s CEO Bill Browder writes.
Last Monday, my friend Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual British-Russian national, was sentenced to 25 years in Russian prison.
His crime? Simply speaking out against Putin’s murderous war in Ukraine.
According to the Russian prosecutor, Vladimir was guilty of treason because of a speech he gave at the Arizona state legislature where he described the bombings of Ukrainian schools and hospitals by the Russian military as a war crime.
Vladimir won’t survive five years in prison, let alone 25. In the one year he’s been in detention, he has already lost 22 kilos. He is also suffering from the aftereffects of two assassination attempts in 2015 and 2017 when he was poisoned with an unknown nerve agent.
As a result of the nerve damage, he can no longer feel his feet and is now losing sensation in his left arm, among other things.
The reason Putin has come down so hard on Vladimir is that Vladimir was one of the most effective advocates of the Magnitsky Act, a piece of legislation that freezes the assets and bans the visas of human rights violators in Russia and around the world.
Since he got involved in the campaign, 35 countries have passed versions of the act. Putin is one of the worst human rights violators and one of the richest men in the world, therefore Vladimir’s work was unforgivable.
Sadly, while he has dedicated his life to campaigning for a free Russia – some in the west, including the United Kingdom, have been deficient in their support for him.
While Canada has been swift to act, introducing sanctions against those involved in his arrest, the UK waited a full year before five individuals involved with Vladimir’s case were sanctioned. There is evidence of the involvement of 34, this means there are still 29 left untouched. It astounds me that the UK is failing in its duty to protect its citizens.
The government must do more to stand up for those who have dedicated their lives to fighting for a better world – such as Vladimir.
What needs to be done?
Above and beyond sanctioning the people who have put Vladimir away for 25 years, we need to find a way of getting him out of jail.
How do we go about doing that? In the US, the government has an office that specialises in hostage situations. Last week I visited that office with Vladimir’s wife, Evgenia. Once the US gets going, they make things happen. They have helped get over two dozen freed in the last few years.
The UK does not have such an office. This case should prompt the parliament to set up something similar and use all the power of the UK Government to get Vladimir out of jail.
We’ve done a remarkable job at supporting Ukraine. We need to do a similarly impressive job supporting the Russians that are standing up to Vladimir Putin and against the war – like Vladimir Kara-Murza.
A painful tale that everyone must read
In addition to Putin committing atrocities, there is one major atrocity being committed by another state that we must keep paying attention to. And that is the genocide of the Uighur people committed by the Chinese Government.
I had an opportunity to meet the reporter who first exposed the genocide, her name was Gulchera Hoja. As a result of her reporting more than 30 members of her extended family were detained in Chinese concentration camps.
She has since written a book exposing the genocide and her experience called, ‘A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs’, it’s a harrowing and compelling story that everyone needs to read.
Bill Browder is the CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Management