The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize must be awarded to Vladimir Kara-Mourza
Call from academics, intellectuals, writers, artists and leaders of civil society associations in favor of awarding the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize to Russian opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza
 

A historian by training, Vladimir Kara-Murza is an independent journalist and political activist, who has become a symbol of the fight against corruption and repression in Russia.

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His commitment to civil liberties dates back more than two decades. Close to Boris Nemtsov, the main opponent of Vladimir Putin's regime assassinated in Moscow on February 27, 2015, he himself was the subject of two poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017, for which Vladimir Kara-Murza was arrested on April 11 2022 in Moscow and sentenced on April 17, 2023 to 25 years of detention in a penal colony for “high treason”, in particular for his positions against the invasion of Ukraine and the war of aggression waged there by the Federation of Russia. Detained as a political prisoner, he now risks spending the rest of his life in captivity.

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Despite the serious threats weighing on him for several years, Vladimir Kara-Murza chose to stay in Russia to wage his battles against the regime while continuing to testify very regularly to international human rights bodies.

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Internationally hailed for his political courage, Vladimir Kara-Murza was awarded the Council of Europe's Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize last year, which allowed him to create the “October 30 Foundation », which aims to provide financial assistance to the families of Russian political prisoners and to establish an international day in favor of political prisoners around the world, without distinction of ethnic or religious affiliation.

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Vladimir Kara-Murza is already very weakened by more than a year of detention. He suffers from a serious illness which, under current Russian law, should exclude his confinement in a penitentiary center, and he is today in detention the subject of arbitrary harassment by the Russian authorities which puts his life in danger.

For all these reasons, we strongly support the candidacy of Vladimir Kara-Murza for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, submitted on January 24 by the Norwegian MP, Ingjerd Schou.