A British-Russian dissident and opponent of Vladimir Putin, freed in the most high-profile prison swap since the end of the Cold War, has described the brutal treatment he suffered during 11 months of solitary confinement in Siberia.
Vladimir Kara-Murza spent 23-and-a-half hours a day in a tiny cell as part of his 25-year sentence for speaking out against Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. The 43-year-old, who served two-and-a-half years of his total sentence before being released in August, spoke of talking to walls and willing away the days “no longer understanding what’s real and what’s imaginary”.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent hours after touching down in Britain for the first time since the USbrokered prison deal with the Kremlin, the Cambridge-educated activist relived his horrifying experience in unflinching detail.
Kara-Murza said the exchange was not merely a swap but a “lifesaving mission”. The death in prison in February of fellow dissident Alexei Navalny, which he described as a Kremlinorchestrated murder, underscored the danger he was in.
“Mentally, psychologically, emotionally, just to be locked up in a cupboard day after day, week after week, month after month, without as much as saying hello to anybody, it’s really, really not easy,” he said at a hotel near the House of Commons.
“After about two or three weeks, your mind really starts playing tricks on you. You start forgetting words. You start forgetting names. You start speaking to walls. You stop understanding what’s real and what’s imaginary.”
Kara-Murza was arrested in Moscow in April 2022 – two months after Mr Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine – for giving speeches around the world about the war crimes Russia’s forces were committing against civilians.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 20, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 20, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
It's the unmade Rocky film with a twist... roll up, folks
There is no hate, no love, the gloves are big and the rounds will be short when Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight on Friday night.
While rivals hit the buffers, Liverpool deserve their lead
Alexis Mac Allister can have a footballing eloquence. His job involves reading the game.
United's ship steadied, now Amorim hits deeper waters
It may be the way all Manchester United managers imagine their reign ending.
Supermarket shoppers will soon find ‘every little hurts'
Is chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to hike employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) about to hit us all – and right in the supermarket baskets?
Barclays warns tax rise will hit workers' living standards
Business leaders accuse government of betraying the nation’
How Gary Barlow became accidental king of memes
The singer is currently enjoying a load of nice days out’ on his new travel show. It’s the latest step in his reinvention as an inadvertent icon of hun culture’, says Katie Rosseinsky
Brothers grim: on the dark world of Nineties boybands
As anew documentary series reveals what it was really like to ride the pop train to stardom, Jessie Thompson remembers her own youthful obsession and looks behind the curtain
Cast iron catnip for Gen Z's aspirations of adulthood
Police had to be called after hundreds of frenzied shoppers descended on a cookware sale this weekend. Helen Coffey dons oven gloves to tackle the LeCreuSlay phenomenon
'Some boys wet themselves, some wanted their mothers'
Reckless exposure to atomic weapons tests left young men and later, their children suffering from debilitating illness and disability. Zoé Beaty reports on the long fight for justice
Why India's trainee doctors are hoping for more bodies
Logistical hurdles and cultural sensitivities are affecting the donation of cadavers, so medical students are forced to train on anatomical models or simulations, reports Namita Singh