Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza thought he was being executed before his release in historic prisoner swap | CNN (2024)

CNN —

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician and one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercestcritics, has described the psychological torture he endured during 11 months in solitary confinement, saying he thought he would die in a Siberian cell.

Kara-Murza spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday for the first time on US television since he was released on August 1 in the largestprisoner exchangebetween the US and Russia since the Cold War.

The British-Russian national was freed at the same time asAmericans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva,who were reunited with their families in emotional scenes at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland earlier this month.

“Just a little over two weeks ago, I was still sitting in my solitaryconfinement cell in a harshregime prison colony inSiberia. And I was certain thatI was going to end my lifein the prison,” Kara-Murza said. “And hereI am now sitting with you in astudio in New York next to mywife … It feelsas if I’m watching some sort offilm, it’s a really good film, but it still feels surreal.”

Since the death of Russian opposition leaderAlexei Navalnyin an Arctic prison in February, Kara-Murza has been the most prominent opposition figure persecuted by the Kremlin.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason forspeaking out against Putin’s war in Ukraine and had spent two and a half years imprisoned in Russia. During that time, Kara-Murza was held in solitary confinement for 11 months and locked up in 13 different penitentiaries, including some of the most notorious prison colonies in the country.

He was allowed to speak on the phone with his wife only once and his three children just twice, he said.

Speaking to Erin Burnett alongside her husband, Evgenia Kara-Murza – who tirelessly lobbied for his release – said she is relieved that she no longer has “this nagging fear in the back of my mind at all times of the day that Vladimir can be killed at any moment.”

Butshe vowed to keep fighting for the other prisoners still locked up in “Vladimir Putin’s regime.”

“Thousands of people have been affected in the same way our family has been affected … This is a victory, but this is only the beginning,” she said.

“We understand that there are over a thousand political prisoners in Russia, that there are thousands of Ukrainians, civilian hostages and war prisoners, not to mention kidnapped Ukrainian kids. And we understand there are over a thousand political prisoners in neighboring Belarus. So, the fight will have to continue.”

‘Absolutely certain’ he was being led to execution

The night he was taken from the prison in Omsk, 2,700 kilometers (1,600 miles) away from Moscow, ahead of the prisoner swap, Kara-Murza said prison guards had burst into his cell at 3 a.m. telling him to “get up,get dressed and to get ready.”

“I was absolutely certainin that moment that I was going to be let out and get executed,” he said.

But Kara-Murza was taken to a passenger airport in Omsk and loaded onto a plane headed for Moscow.

After spending nearly a year locked in a tiny cell in solitary confinement with no one to talk to, Kara-Murza said he was suddenly thrust into “the middle of a busy passengerairport with normal people,families, kids, walking around.”

He was transferred to Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison and held incommunicado with no idea he would soon be released.

Guards told him to dress in the only civilian clothes he had – a night shirt and rubber flip-flops he used in the shower – before taking him to a bus in the prison courtyard.

“It was areally a picture out ofHollywood movie. There was arow of men in black balaclavascovering their faces,” he said. “Itwas only then at the very lastmoment when I saw my friendsand colleagues on that bus … that’s when I knew what was happening.”

Included in the release was a host of Russian activists, human rights defenders and opposition figures.

The sweeping dealinvolved 24 detaineesin total and was the result of years of complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany, ultimately leading Berlin to agree to Moscow’s key demand – releasing convictedRussian assassin Vadim Krasikov.

Kara-Muza said he stepped off the plane in Ankara, Turkey and was handed a phone with US President Joe Biden calling. Standing next to Biden in the Oval Office in Washington, DC and joining the call were his wife and kids.

Speaking to his family for the first time since his release, Kara-Muza said, “I don’t believe what’s happening. I still think I’m sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk instead of hearing your voice.”

‘Psychological torture’

On Monday, Kara-Murza said that while physical torture is rife in Russia’s prison system, high profile political prisoners are kept isolated in an “enforced solitude” that is “nobetter than physical torture.”

“Every day is likeGroundhog Day. It’smeaningless, it’s endless and it’sexactly the same,” he said. “When you have absolutely nobody to likeexchange a single word with, it really starts to get on your mind.”

Kara-Murzadescribed the brutal conditions of being kept in a tiny cell all day with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

“You wake up at5:00 a.m. in the morning with an official wake-up call. Yourbunk gets attached to the wall so there’s no way you can lieor properly sit down all day. All you can dois just walk around the cell,” he said.

Inmates were allowed a pen and paper for only 90 minutes a day, and “the onlytime I got taken out of thecell is to go out for aso-called walk, which isbasically just walking aroundin a circle in a small coveredinternal prison courtyard.”

While held in the “special regime” Penal Colony No. 7 in Omsk, Kara-Murza said conditions were “really harsh” but one“big plus” was the cats that would walk around the facility.

“When I was walking around inthe courtyard the cats wouldcome in and sit next to the metalbars and I was able to have aconversationwith them. Thesewere my only interlocutors,” he said.

Nowenjoying his freedom and time with his family, Kara-Murza has promised to return to Russia.

“I know that Russia will change, and I will be back to my homeland,” he said, adding, “it will be much quicker” than anyone might think.

His wife Evgenia agreed: “The fight continues. We’re going to have to do everything we can to bring down this regime and this evil,” she said.