'The West needs a Russia strategy in place come Putin's inevitable downfall'

In the second part of his exclusive interview, freed dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza tells Tom Watling that the long-term security of Europe rests on a free and democratic Russia

A key British-Russian dissident who escaped death after being rescued from solitary confinement during a historic US-brokered prisoner swap has vowed the downfall of Vladimir Putin is “inevitable”.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, 43, served two years of a 25-year sentence for speaking out against the war in Ukraine before being freed from his Siberian penal colony in August. As one of the most high-profile opposition figures to Putin, he is adamant that even if he – like Alexei Navalny – is killed, others will rise up against the regime.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Independent hours after arriving in the UK for the first time since being freed, KaraMurza speaks at length about the future of Russia – and how those who object to the status quo cannot be stopped.

“Even if Vladimir Putin kills all of us, the current leaders of the opposition, others will come in our place,” he says. “Others from the younger generation. The people who turned out in the tens of thousands for the funeral procession of Alexei Navalny in Moscow earlier this year. People who have been leaving these flowers at makeshift memorials all over the country. They will come and take our place to find a democratic Russia, even when none of us are there.”

He thanked The Independent for shining a light on his case, adding: “Thank you so much for all your coverage over the past two years. It is because of this that I am sitting here today talking to you.”

The father of three, who met Sir Keir Starmer yesterday, has escaped death but is more than willing to risk his life again for his country by returning to Russia.

He survived two poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017, which he says were orchestrated by the Kremlin, and in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years for his opposition, the longest political sentence in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.