How the ECHR Saved Vladimir Kara‑Murza’s Sanity in a Siberian Gulag

How the ECHR Saved Vladimir Kara‑Murza’s Sanity in a Siberian Gulag

Vladimir Kara‑Murza, a British‑Russian dissident sentenced to 25 years in solitary confinement, says letters allowed under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were critical to preserving his sanity during months in a Siberian prison. Convicted of high treason after publicly denouncing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Kara‑Murza received one of the harshest political sentences in Russia since the Stalin era.

Before his imprisonment he survived two separate nerve‑agent assassination attempts, which have been linked to Russia’s security services. After his arrest he was placed in strict isolation: small cells, restricted movement and very limited contact with others.

“The worst nightmare for a political prisoner is to be forgotten,” Kara‑Murza told The Telegraph. “Those letters are really life‑changing. They help you survive. They help you stay sane.”

Kara‑Murza says the correspondence he received was only possible because Russia once accepted the ECHR’s protections — specifically Article 8, which safeguards the right to private and family life, including a right to correspondence. Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe in March 2022, a month after it invaded Ukraine, and has since moved to remove many ECHR guarantees domestically.

After nearly two years behind bars, Kara‑Murza — now 44 — was released in August 2024 as part of the largest prisoner swap with Western countries since the Cold War. He now lives in the United States and continues to campaign against political repression in Russia.

During his confinement he described a daily routine of near‑total isolation: a tiny cell (about 10 by 13 feet), a metal‑barred window high under the ceiling, a bed folded into the wall from dawn until lights‑out, and permission to write for only 90 minutes each day. With little else to occupy him, he turned to two lifelines: letters from supporters and a single permitted book — a Spanish textbook — which he studied obsessively.

“There’s so much hope and light in this stack of papers,” he recalled of the letters handed through a feeding slot each afternoon. Studying Spanish gave him structure and a small, practical victory: after his release he used the language in Madrid’s parliament.

Kara‑Murza has also been an active user of the ECHR in the past: before his arrest he won three separate cases against the Russian state at Strasbourg. He predicts that a democratic Russia would rejoin the Council of Europe and its human‑rights mechanisms after Putin’s fall.

He criticised UK political figures advocating a withdrawal from the ECHR, saying migration is a "very small part" of the Convention’s remit. Kara‑Murza highlighted the broader protections the treaty provides — freedom of assembly, free elections, religious liberty and freedom of expression — and called proposals to leave the system "shameful and unacceptable." He noted that some Conservatives privately disagree with proposals to abandon the treaty.

Kara‑Murza estimates that at least 1,566 political prisoners are held across Russian detention facilities, a number he says exceeds politically motivated detentions across the Soviet republics in the mid‑1980s. "The level of political repression in Russia today is staggering. It’s unprecedented," he said, adding that on average several people a day are arrested on politically motivated charges.

He urged Western governments to prioritise more international prisoner exchanges and to continue defending human‑rights mechanisms. He also praised Ukraine’s resistance to the 2022 invasion and warned that political change in Russia, when it comes, will be sudden.

Although he survived assassination attempts and brutal imprisonment, Kara‑Murza says he does not wish death on Putin. Instead, he wants to see the Russian leader held to account in court: "I want to see his face when he’s sitting in that dock in The Hague," he said.

Note: Quotes attributed to Kara‑Murza were given in an interview with The Telegraph. Dates and figures reflect statements made by Kara‑Murza and reports available as of his release in August 2024.