Owen Roberts
Staff Writer
Vladimir Karza-Murza, a prominent critic of Russian politics, especially the Putin administration, was rushed to the hospital on the 7th after experiencing a heightened heart rate and difficulty breathing. He is currently in critical condition and has fallen into a coma. In 2015, he experienced almost identical symptoms, which has led many, including his wife, to expect foul play.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, and an advocate for Open Russia, a company who works for human rights in Russia. Although he lives in the US, he frequently returns to russia to organize protests. He was visiting Russia most recently to film a documentary about Boris Nemtsov, another Putin critic and opposition leader who was murdered in 2015.
Many believe that Kara Murza has been poisoned, including his wife, who told the times that the doctor identified “acute intoxication by an unidentified substance” as the cause of his comatose state.
This certainly wouldn't be the first suspected political assassination for the Putin Administration. In 2006, the Russian Parliament created a law allowing the president to use special forces to kill extremists outside of Russia’s borders. The law defines extremists as “those slandering the individual occupying the post of president of the Russian Federation.” Maybe the highest profile case of a suspected poisoning would be the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian journalist and critic who was hospitalized for radiation poisoning after he met with two former KGB agents. The poisoning was attributed to polonium-210, seemingly slipped into his food during lunch.
