Russian Dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza Calls Trump Admin’s Relationship With Ukraine ‘Absolutely Horrendous’

Russian dissident Vladimir V. Kara-Murza said he has lost faith in the United States’ commitment to protect Ukraine during a Tuesday talk at the Davis Center.

“What’s been happening is absolutely horrendous,” Kara-Murza said. “For the next four years I won’t waste any time working with the administration of the United States of America.”

Kara-Murza, a journalist and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticized the Trump administration’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as incompetent.

“I have to remind myself that it's only been 45 days, we have four more years to go,” he said.

“I sometimes wonder whether these people — I think do not have any historical knowledge at all,” Kara-Murza added.

During his discussion with journalist Yevgenia M. Albats, Kara-Munrza discussed his arrest by the Russian government, imprisonment, and eventual exchange — which he said would not have been possible in today’s political climate.

“If these guys who are in power now had been in power last year, we would both rot and die,” said Kara-Murza.

Kara-Murza — a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin — was arrested in front of his Moscow home three years ago. After he was charged with treason and four other charges, Kara-Murza spent two years of his 25-year-sentence in prison before his exchange.

“The 25 years was a way of killing — more slowly and in a more sadistic manner,” Kara-Murza said.

Albats asked why Kara-Murza decided to return to Russia in 2022, despite warnings of his arrest by an informant inside the secret police. In response, Kara-Murza said he had a “special responsibility” to return to the country, as a journalist and dissident.

“Fear is a personal choice, ” Kara-Murza said.

He went on to describe the time he spent in prison, describing how everything down to the uniforms, itinerary, and rooms were the same from Soviet times. Kara-Murza detailed his experiences in solitary confinement, which he said were made more difficult by limited contact with his family.

“The most difficult thing was the ban on phone calls with my family,” Kara-Murza said, “They torture the families. In the two years and three months I was in prison, I was only once able to speak on the phone with my wife and twice with children.”

Kara-Murza drew parallels between his experience and that of his grandfather, a journalist arrested by the KGB, the Soviet secret police force, in the 1930s. He said that while their charges were filed almost a century apart, they used the same language.

“It said that he expressed hostility to the leadership of the party. It was literally the same expressions they use today, ” Kara-Murza said.

In July 2024, Kara-Murza was pardoned as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration. But he refused to sign the pardon while imprisoned, instead writing his grievances against Putin.

Despite his refusal, Kara-Murza and other prisoners were transported out of Russia as a part of the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War. But Kara-Murza said he was largely kept in the dark about the exchange, only realizing he was free once he spoke to former president Joe Biden on the phone.

“He said that my wife and kids were with him in the Oval Office, and then I heard their voices,” Kara-Murza said, “ I don’t think I am going to be able to choose words in any language to express that feeling.”

Looking forward, Kara-Murza spoke optimistically about the state of anti-war movements in Russia. He referenced the last Russian presidential election, where thousands of Russians waited in lines to sign the petition for the anti-war candidate to be on the ballot.

“I know things will change. I know Russia will be democratic,” Kara-Murza said.

— Staff Writer Mackenzie L. Boucher can be reached at mackenzie.boucher@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Mactruck0528.