'Democracies must join forces to bring in measures to stop taking of hostages'

A RUSSIAN activist whose husband was jailed after speaking out against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine wants the UK to set up a department to deal with unlawful detention of political prisoners.

- Tara Fair

And her idea has won backing from an influential Tory MP.

Evgenia Kara-Murza, whose husband Vladimir, 42, has been weakened by two poisonings and is being held in Siberia, said severe sanctions, automatic exclusion from international groups and a dedicated hostage affairs envoy must be introduced as political prisoner numbers rise.

Speaking to the Daily Express, she said: "A change is needed. As dictators work together, propping each other up and adopting each other's practices, it would be logical for democracies to join forces and prevent these practices." Mr Kara-Murza, a RussianBritish citizen, was jailed for 25 years the longest sentence handed down to a critic since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Poisonings

Hours before his arrest in April 2022, Mr Kara-Murza appeared on CNN and said: "This regime is not just corrupt, it's not just kleptocratic, it's not just authoritarian. It is a regime of murderers." But his resistance to Putin's brutal dictatorship spans decades and he has survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017, both of which plunged him into a coma.

Ms Kara-Murza, 43, said: "The Government needs a cohesive approach to send the message that if something like this happens, the consequences are going to be immediate.

"If sanctions like this are being triggered automatically, then maybe the next dictator would think twice." Her stance is backed by Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

She has been pressuring the Foreign Secretary to "transform" how Britain approaches hostagetaking, urging him to give more support to those families and work together with foreign governments for a coordinated response.