Posted:
02 Aug 2024
Trinity Hall Honorary Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner Vladimir Kara-Murza has been freed as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.
In an exchange covered by the world’s press, Mr Kara-Murza has been released from Russian captivity alongside a number of other high-profile prisoners.
The Master, Fellows and wider Trinity Hall community welcome Mr Kara-Murza’s release.
Mary Hockaday, Master of Trinity Hall, said: “We heard the news of Vladimir’s release with great relief. His imprisonment was a travesty, unwarranted punishment for political opposition and criticism of the war in Ukraine. We wish him and his family all best wishes as he recovers from his ordeal.”
Mr Kara-Murza, an alumnus of Trinity Hall, was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College in 2023. His wife Evgenia accepted the nomination on his behalf. In May 2024, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the “passionate columns” he penned for the Washington Post while in a Russian prison cell.
In a statement issued by the UK Government, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “Mr Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin’s regime. He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine. I pay tribute to his family’s courage in the face of such hardship and hope to speak to him soon.”
Mr Kara-Murza, a journalist and opposition activist, has faced two attempts to poison him, in 2015 and 2017. In April 2022 he was arrested and jailed. The following year, on 17 April 2023, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian penal colony.
