Editor's note: This story was adapted from the original VOA Russian article.
Russian opposition politician and former political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza has called for the release of all prisoners of war in Russia, including Ukrainian civilians and Russian political prisoners. He also urged negotiators make their release a condition of any ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
He made the appeal October 30 following the Roll Call for Freedom, a ceremony in Washington marking International Political Prisoners Day. In his interview with VOA Russian, Kara-Murza explained that international attention helps prisoners resist the isolation that authoritarian regimes seek to impose on them.
“The worst thing for a political prisoner is to be forgotten. I have often quoted those words, but I only truly understood them when I found myself behind bars,” Kara-Murza said.
Kara-Murza was arrested in April 2022 for criticizing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023 he was convicted of treason and spreading “false information” about the Russian army and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was freed on Aug. 1, 2024, in a major U.S.-Russia prisoner swap that also freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan.
People must be discussed first, said Kara-Murza calling for the release of prisoners of war and political prisoners to be included in any possible agreement on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“In my view, a key element of any possible truce agreement, any possible agreement on a ceasefire in Ukraine, must be a provision for the release of all prisoners, all hostages of this damn war,” he said.
Kara-Murza said this should include Ukrainian civilians held in Russian prisons, children taken from Ukrainian territory, and Russian political prisoners persecuted for speaking out against the war and the authoritarian regime.
“When we periodically hear reports in the media that, during these regularly held negotiations, everything under the sun is being discussed — sanctions, frozen assets, territories, rare earth metals, God knows what else — people must be discussed first.”
Among the journalists, musicians, human rights defenders and representatives of religious minorities from different countries whose names were read at the October 30 ceremony, the only minors were Russian teenagers.
Their stories were presented by Sonya Kara-Murza, Vladimir Kara-Murza’s 17-year-old daughter. In an interview, she spoke about four teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 who were imprisoned for anti-war statements and other forms of peaceful protest.
One of them was Arseny Turbin. In 2023, when he was 15, he was detained after distributing leaflets criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian authorities accused the schoolboy of participating in the Freedom of Russia Legion, which Russia has designated a terrorist organization, and claimed he intended to join the group.
Turbin denied the allegations, saying he had distributed the leaflets on his own initiative. In June 2024, he was sentenced to five years in a juvenile penal colony. The human rights project Support for Political Prisoners Memorial recognized him as a political prisoner.
“Today I spoke about four teenagers who are roughly my age, between 15 and 17. They were all schoolchildren, passionate about something, with big dreams. They were approaching the end of school and were planning their futures, but they were arrested, and today they are all still imprisoned for absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. For using their voices or for graffiti,” said Sonya Kara-Murza following the ceremony.
She said stories about children fundamentally change the way people think about political prisoners:
“When we think of political prisoners, we imagine people who already have jobs, politicians or activists. But these are schoolchildren and children, athletes, aspiring scientists and mathematicians. These children should be spending time with their friends and worrying about getting into college, not about when they will see their families again.”
The Roll Call for Freedom ceremony was organized by the October 30 Coalition, established to draw international attention to the plight of political prisoners and support their families.
Its members include the National Endowment for Democracy, the 30 October Foundation, the Free Russia Foundation, Freedom House, the World Liberty Congress, the McCain Institute, the Lantos Foundation, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, the Human Rights Foundation and Free Them One by One.
The organizers intend to hold International Political Prisoners Day annually and support joint efforts to secure prisoners' release throughout the year.