Who is Putin's critic who was sentenced to 25 years in prison?

One of Russia's most vocal critics, Vladimir Putin, was sentenced on Monday, April 17th to 25 years of acquittal from a court in Moscow.

The charges of treason and other works, Kara-Murza himself, dismissed them as politically motivated.

But his revolt against the Kremlin began long before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

According to historian, he has repeatedly warned Western leaders not to be “buten” to Putin, comparing his methods for “the notion of democracy and freedom” with those of Italian fascist dictator Benito Musolini.

Kara-Murza played a leading role with his mentor, Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in 2015 to convince the US Congress to adopt a sanctions legislation that would target corrupt officials and human rights abusers in Russia, including people close to Putin.

His work in advancing the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which gives the US president authority to freeze the American assets of Russian government officials and businessmen charged with serious wrongdoing, has cost him almost twice as many lives.

Kara-Murza was hospitalised in severe condition in 2015 and in 2017, under suspicion of deliberately poisoning while in Russia.

American authorities have investigated his diseases as deliberate poisonings, showed the documents of the US Department of Justice, examined exclusively by Radio Free Europe in 2020.

US government data has also shown that doctors have considered the possibility that he was poisoned with biotoxy or radioactive substance.

Kara-Murza has believed he has been targeted because of his support for the Magnitsky Act. He has said Putin's Kremlin fears only street protests more than sanctions.

The Kremlin has lobbied many in the United States in 2010 to block and then overthrow the Magnitsky Act, but without success.

The legislation has been named after a Russian lawyer who died in a Moscow prison after exposing some evidence of massive tax fraud, including Russian officials.

Speaking of Actin Magnitsky at the American Congress, Kara-Murza has named it legislation “pro-rus” that directly hits Putin's collaborators.

Other Western countries have later adopted similar legislation, giving new shocks to the Russian regime.

Among the first people to be sanctioned by the Magnnisky Act, there was Sergei Podovov, the judge in the Kara-Murza trial.

Following the approval of the Magnitsky Act, Kara-Murza has continued to encourage the United States to increase the number of Russians subject to sanctions.

Nemtov Assistant

Kara-Murza has been politically active since she was a teenager.

In 2000, while he studied in the United Kingdom, he has become the assistant of Nemtsov a liberal vice president of the Russian Parliament's Lower Chamber, which has also served as the first deputy prime minister under Russian President Boris Yelts.

Nemtsov, who has led the Union of Right Forces (SPS) a coalition of democratic parties has lost his seat in the 2003 parliamentary elections after Putin has used increased control of the state, including media, to crush the opposition.

Kara-Murza has remained close to Nemtsov.

Nemtsov has been in the process of organising a protest against the annexing of the Ukrainian Crimea Peninsula from Russia, when it has been shot to death on a bridge near the Kremlin.

Kara-Murza has tried to keep Nemtsov's legacy alive. He has actively participated in mass protests that have erupted in Moscow, following the 2011 parliamentary elections. Protests have been the biggest since Putin came to power in 1999.

Later, Kara-Murza has joined open Russia, a non-profit organisation promoting civil society and democracy, financing various projects.

Open Russia is founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon and staunch opponent of Putin, who has been imprisoned for 10 years under charges of tax evasion.

While actively participating in Russia's opposition movement, Kara-Murza has also followed in the footsteps of his father, also called Vladimir Kara-Murza. He has been one of Russia's most prominent journalists and has also worked for the Russian Radio Free Europe Service.

Kara-Murza worked as a journalist for various Russian newspapers in the early 2000s, while she was fascinated in history at Cambridge University.

Later, he moved to Washington, where he served as head office for RTV, a global media company in Russian. He has held that task until 2012.

During his time in Washington, Kara-Murza has developed good relations with US officials, including the late senator John McCain one of Putin's most harsh critics.