Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian human rights advocate and Kremlin critic, has won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary written from his prison cell.
Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year jail term for publicly criticizing Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The sentence had been widely condemned by the international community as draconian and politically motivated.
According to Monday’s Pulitzer announcement, Kara-Murza was awarded the prize for his “passionate columns” as a contributor to The Washington Post from prison in Russia “under great personal risk.”
His writing “warns of the consequences of dissent in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and insists on a democratic future for his country,” it said.
The writer’s wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, told the Washington Post on Monday that she is “truly heartbroken” that her husband could not be present to “accept this high distinction by himself.”
She thanked the Post “for making sure that the voice of Vladimir is heard.”
Kara-Murza was initially detained in April 2022, hours after an interview with CNN in which he criticized the Russian president’s “regime of murderers.”
The Kremlin critic was put on trial for criminal offenses that included treason, spreading fake news about the Russian army and facilitating activities of an undesirable organization.
Russia criminalized criticism of the military following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The court said he would serve his sentence “in a strict regime correctional colony.”
Kara-Murza has long been critical of Putin and has survived two poisonings.
In March 2022, he spoke before the Arizona House of Representatives against the war. In his April 2022 interview with CNN, the political dissident condemned Putin’s regime for targeting critics.
He was arrested shortly afterwards for “failing to obey the orders of law enforcement,” according to his wife.
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