The relative of a dual national British-Russian opposition figure who stood up to Putin has reportedly been the victim of a ‘poison attack’.
Police in Germany said today that they were investigating a suspected poisoning attempt on a Russian-German woman, identified by the news magazine Der Spiegel as a close relative of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the German Police said: ‘We are currently investigating on suspicion of attempted murder.’
The woman is currently hospitalised – according to a spokesperson from the force.
Mr Kara-Murza has been one of Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics and has spent years speaking out against the Russian government. He also lobbied Western leaders to impose sanctions on the country and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.
The British national has allegedly been poisoned twice by Russian agents and was sentenced in 2023 for a quarter of a century by a Moscow court after it found him guilty of treason and other offences.
The sentence was the harshest of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine, and was swiftly condemned by the then-Tory government who called it ‘politically motivated’ and called for his immediate release.
In September this year, he was released from a Siberian camp in a prisoner exchange and declared in his first major interview since returning to the UK that Putin’s downfall ‘inevitable’.
Police said today that they were investigating a suspected poisoning attempt on a Russian-German woman, identified by the news magazine Der Spiegel as a close relative of Vladimir Kara-Murza (pictured)
Mr Kara-Murza has been one of Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken critics and has spent years speaking out against the Russian government
Mr Kara-Murza at an anti-Putin rally in Berlin last month. In September this year, he was released from a Siberian camp in a prisoner exchange and declared in his first major interview since returning to the UK that Putin’s downfall ‘inevitable’
Mr Kara-Murza was freed along with 15 others including Western journalists and other Russian dissidents on August 1 in the most extensive prisoner swap with Russia since the Cold War.
Speaking at the time of his release, he said that Putin will ultimately lose his grip on power and will be replaced by people ‘from the younger generation’ who he believes will build a democratic Russia.
‘Even if Vladimir Putin kills all of us, the current leaders of the opposition, others will come in our place from the younger generation… They will come and take our place to find a democratic Russia, even when none of us are there.’
Speaking to the Independent, Mr Kara-Murza’s message was clear – there will be a future in which Russia becomes a democracy.
But he also insisted that Western governments must develop a robust strategy to engage with a post-Putin Russia, warning that without such a plan, Ukraine and the rest of Europe would remain under threat.
‘None of us knows when or precisely in what circumstances the next political change will come in Russia, but it will, because nothing is forever. It might be in three years; it might be in two months. But it will come.’
Mr Kara-Murza at Moscow City Court. The British national was sentenced to 25 years behind bars before he was released in the most extensive prisoner swap with Russia since the Cold War
Mr Kara-Murza has allegedly been poisoned twice by Russian agents
‘We cannot base long-term political strategy on emotion,’ he said.
‘It has to be rational… based on what we want to happen, what we want to see, what we want Europe to look like 10 years down the line.’
The dissident went on to draw parallels between the sudden collapse of the Romanov empire in 1917 and the Soviet regime in 1991, suggesting that Putin’s fall could come just as abruptly and that the West must be ready for it.
Besides his interview with the Independent, Mr Kara-Murza also attended a press conference in Westminster where he declared he hoped that Russia’s President lives a long life – so he can be brought to justice for his crimes.