The United States has sanctioned six Russian nationals -- including judges and government officials -- for what it calls the "arbitrary detention" and "serious human rights abuses" against jailed Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was imprisoned in April 2022 after speaking out against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. authorities on March 3 said they were designating the individuals pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the globe.
Among other penalties, the new sanctions mean that access to all property and interests in property under U.S. jurisdiction of the designated persons will be blocked.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it was slapping sanctions on Elena Anatolievna Lenskaya, a judge; Andrei Andreevich Zadachin, special prosecutor; and Danila Yurievich Mikheev, a special witness, for their alleged involvement in the prosecution of Kara-Murza and alleged rights abuse against the activist.
At the same time, the State Department said it had designated Russian government officials Oleg Mikhailovich Sviridenko, Diana Igorevna Mishchenko, and Ilya Pavlovich Kozlov in matters related to Kara-Murza.
It said Sviridenko is Russia’s current deputy minister of justice who oversees criminal prosecution cases, including those involving Kara-Murza.
Mishchenko, a judge, issued the initial ruling approving Kara-Murza's arrest and sentenced him to 15 days in jail, the State Department added, while saying that Kozlov, also a judge, denied Kara-Murza's appeal of Mishchenko's administrative arrest ruling.
"Kara-Murza was subjected to arbitrary detention for speaking the truth about [President Vladimir Putin's] regime and its actions…falsely claiming Kara-Murza was spreading disinformation and determining he should remain in pre-trial detention pending his trial," the Treasury statement said.
"Since that time, the Russian government has ramped up its pressure on Kara-Murza by bringing two additional criminal charges against him, for involvement in an 'undesirable' foreign organization and for high treason," it added.
The 41-year-old Kara-Murza was detained in April and sentenced to 15 days in jail on a charge of disobeying police. He was later charged with spreading false information about the Russian Army for talks he held with lawmakers in the U.S. state of Arizona.
In October 2022, a high treason charge was added to the list of offenses he faced over his alleged cooperation with organizations in a NATO member nation for many years.
Kara-Murza has rejected the charges, calling them politically motivated.
Putin has moved to silence his opponents over the years through legislation that has restricted free speech and civil society in Russia. That campaign has intensified since he launched an invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022.