Facing up to a quarter of a century in jail on treason charges he denies, Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza told a Moscow court on Monday his trial recalled one of Josef Stalin's show trials in the 1930s and said he had done nothing wrong.
Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and former journalist who holds Russian and British passports, has spent years as a politician opposing President Vladimir Putin and has lobbied foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.
Russian state prosecutors on Thursday requested a 25-year prison sentence for Kara-Murza, who they accuse of treason and of discrediting the Russian military after he criticised what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
His trial, which will culminate in a verdict on April 17, is being held behind closed doors, but a copy of his final speech to the court on Monday was made available by his wife and lawyer.
In it, he struck a defiant tone, declined to ask the court to acquit him, and said he stood by and was proud of everything he had said.
The current environment, he said, was not so much like the 1970s - a period when the state faced off against Soviet dissidents - as the 1930s, when Stalin conducted a series of show trials and purges of his opponents.
"For me, as a historian, this is cause for reflection," said Kara-Murza.
"Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate."
Shortly after sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year, Russia introduced sweeping wartime censorship laws which have been used to silence dissenting voices across society.
"Discrediting" the army can currently be punished by up to five years in prison, while spreading deliberately false information about it can attract a 15-year jail sentence.
At a time of what they have cast as an existential struggle with the West, pro-government politicians say unity across society is vital and have described Russian citizens questioning Moscow's actions in Ukraine as part of a pro-Western fifth column trying to undermine the military campaign.
Earlier on Monday, dozens of Russian journalists and rights activists - many of whom have fled the country - called on the authorities to free Kara-Murza, saying the charges against him were baseless and politically-motivated.
"Prosecute murderers and criminals rather than honest and responsible citizens who dare to think and speak the truth," the letter said. "Stop Russia's new slide toward Stalinism and a totalitarian system."
There was no immediate response to the letter from the authorities, who regard many of its signatories as traitors who crave the defeat of their own country on the battlefield.
Kara-Murza and his supporters say he has twice survived being poisoned in the past. Russian authorities deny any involvement in the alleged attacks.
(Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Rosalba O'Brien)
