A U.S. resident was recently sentenced to several years in a Russian penal colony. I'm not referring to Brittney Griner, the college basketball wunderkind turned WNBA star. But you would be forgiven for thinking so.
I'm referring to Vladimir Kara-Murza, the Russian dissident, journalist, and activist who on Monday was given a 25-year prison term for offenses related to treason. In President Vladimir Putin's Russia, that word is mostly devoid of meaning. Kara-Murza's offenses essentially amount to repeatedly criticizing the Russian government for its obvious and objective barbarism. That includes, for example, the Kremlin's not-so-secret habit of killing, or attempting to kill, those who step out of line, something Kara-Murza himself was likely a victim of—twice. He survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017, though they have left him with severe polyneuropathy, a condition causing numbness in the extremities.
