Prominent Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza charged with high treason, lawyer says
CBSN
Prominent Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was jailed six months ago for denouncing Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, has been charged with high treason, his lawyer said Thursday.
Kara-Murza, a dissident politician who's suffered two suspected poisoning attacks, was detained near his house in April and quickly sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying a police order. He was arrested just a few hours after CNN aired an interview with him in which he called Putin's government a "murderous regime" and suggested the war in Ukraine would lead to the Russian strongman leader's downfall.
On Thursday, his lawyer Vadym Prokhorov told Russia's state-run TASS news agency that Kara-Murza was charged with high treason "after speaking out critically against the Russian authorities three times, at public events in Lisbon, Helsinki and Washington. These speeches did not pose any threat (to Russia), it was public, open criticism."
