Prominent Putin critic arrested in Moscow
- Vladimir Kara-Murza faces up to 15 days in jail for disobeying police orders, The Guardian reported.
- Russia has increased punishments against journalists and anti-war activists since the invasion began.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist and outspoken critic of the Kremlin, was arrested on Monday in Moscow on charges of failing to obey police orders, his lawyer told the independent Russian news outlet Sota.
He faces up to 15 days in jail or a small fine, the Guardian reported. It is unclear whether Kara-Murza's arrest is linked to his vocal opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, but his detainment comes at a time when the Kremlin is increasing arrests of journalists and anti-war activists.
"[I]t seems to me that they are very annoyed by his behavior and actions with regard to the taking up of sanctions against Russia and for other reasons," Aleksander Podrabinek, a prominent Russian human rights activist and supporter of Kara-Murza told Sota about the arrest. "But mostly I think they are outraged by his courage."
Kara-Murza has previously said he was poisoned on two separate occasions for his critiques of Putin, once which almost killed him due to acute kidney failure and the second left him in a medically induced coma for several days.
Translations by Nikita Ilyich Angarski.