Episode 24: Special re-release of “Vladimir Kara-Murza: The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead” Artwork

The Keeper: A Human Rights Podcast

Hosted by Lantos Foundation President, Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, The Keeper features in depth conversations about the most pressing matters of human rights and justice around the world and welcomes some of the most important human rights figures of our time as guests.The Keeper takes its name from the personal conviction of the Lantos Foundation's namesake Congressman Tom Lantos, fully lived out in his own life, that we have a moral and ethical obligation to be our brother and sister’s keeper. This guiding principle led Congressman Lantos to found the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and use his eloquence, leadership, and personal passion to advocate fiercely on behalf of those whose human rights were being trampled in every corner of the world.

All Episodes

The Keeper: A Human Rights Podcast

Episode 24: Special re-release of “Vladimir Kara-Murza: The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead”

April 11, 2024 • The Lantos Foundation • Episode 24

On April 11, 2024, we are re-releasing our 2021 episode “The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead.” There is a very somber reason for this re-release. This date marks the two-year anniversary of Vladimir Kara-Murza’s arrest and imprisonment on charges of “public dissemination of deliberately false information.” Vladimir, one of the boldest and most eloquent Russian opposition figures, committed the great “crime” of speaking out against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine. For speaking the truth, he is now serving a 25-year sentence in a remote and notoriously harsh penal colony. Vladimir’s health, already compromised by two nearly fatal poisonings ordered by the Kremlin, is declining. Time is running out. It is imperative for people everywhere to keep advocating for Vladimir’s release, to keep demanding that western governments intervene, to keep reminding the Putin regime that there is a cost to making dissidents into political prisoners. If we hope to hear Vladimir’s voice again one day, speaking out boldly for democracy and human rights in Russia, then we must speak boldly now in calling for his release.

This re-release features a condensed version of the episode created from two conversations that Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett had with Vladimir in late 2020 and early 2021.

Read Vladimir Kara-Murza’s opinion pieces in The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Moscow City Court

Write Vladimir a letter

The Price of Conviction podcast (produced by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)

Russian dissident Kara-Murza moved to isolation cell in new Siberian prison (Reuters, Jan. 30, 2024)