The United States and United Kingdom have strongly condemned the "politically motivated" case against Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza as he spent a second birthday in detention after being moved to a new prison that has not been disclosed.
In a statement published on September 7, Kara-Murza's 42nd birthday, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow called for his immediate release, as well as the release of the more than 600 political prisoners in Russia.
Two days earlier, his wife, Yevgenia Kara-Murza, said her husband was being transferred "in complete secrecy, in an unknown direction," and that history showed "a transfer is a very, maybe even the most dangerous period in the life of a political prisoner."
"As Kara-Murza has argued, speaking truth to power is the act of a patriot, not an 'enemy' of the state," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in its statement.
"Like hundreds of other courageous Russians who have been detained for exercising their basic rights as citizens, he is a casualty of the Kremlin's attempt to silence dissent," it added.
The Kremlin critic was handed a 25-year prison term on charges of high treason, involvement in the activities of an undesirable group, and discrediting Russia's armed forces. He and his supporters have called the case politically motivated.
An appeals court in Moscow in July denied Kara-Murza's appeal against his sentence.
Kara-Murza was initially arrested in April 2022 after returning to Russia from abroad and charged with disobeying a police officer.
He was later charged with discrediting the Russian military, a charge stemming from a Kremlin push to stamp out criticism of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The treason charges were added later over remarks he made in speeches outside Russia that criticized Kremlin policies.
"Vladimir Kara-Murza should not be in prison at all -- he is only there for having rightly called out Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a contravention of international law," the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement.
"His persecution is part of a wider pattern of oppression of Russian citizens by the Kremlin. Since the invasion, thousands of Russians have been arrested and prosecuted for even small gestures of opposition to the war."
The former journalist, who holds both Russian and British passports, has spent years as a politician opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin and has lobbied foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for human rights violations.
He has twice survived being poisoned, according to his own accounts and those of his supporters. Russian authorities deny any involvement in the alleged attacks.
Kara-Murza was an advocate for the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which sets out sanctions for human rights violators in Russia. In March, the United States placed sanctions on six people, including three judges, due to their role in Kara-Murza's detention.
Kara-Murza is one of many opposition activists, reporters, and others who have been arrested and prosecuted under tightened legislation amid a growing Kremlin crackdown on civil society.
According to the human rights group OVD-Info, almost 20,000 Russians have been detained for anti-war protests since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion.