Freed Putin critic describes life in harsh Russian prisons

(CNN) — Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician and one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, has described the psychological torture he endured during 11 months in solitary confinement, saying he thought he would die in a Siberian cell.

Kara-Murza spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday for the first time on US television since he was released on August 1 in the largest prisoner exchange between the US and Russia since the Cold War.

The British-Russian national was freed at the same time as Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, who were reunited with their families in emotional scenes at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland earlier this month.

“Just a little over two weeks ago, I was still sitting in my solitary confinement cell in a harsh regime prison colony in Siberia. And I was certain that I was going to end my life in the prison,” Kara-Murza said. “And here I am now sitting with you in a studio in New York next to my wife … It feels as if I’m watching some sort of film, it’s a really good film, but it still feels surreal.”

Since the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February, Kara-Murza has been the most prominent opposition figure persecuted by the Kremlin.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason for speaking out against Putin’s war in Ukraine and had spent two and a half years imprisoned in Russia. During that time, Kara-Murza was held in solitary confinement for 11 months and locked up in 13 different penitentiaries, including some of the most notorious prison colonies in the country.

He was allowed to speak on the phone with his wife only once and his three children just twice, he said.

Speaking to Erin Burnett alongside her husband, Evgenia Kara-Murza – who tirelessly lobbied for his release – said she is relieved that she no longer has “this nagging fear in the back of my mind at all times of the day that Vladimir can be killed at any moment.”

But she vowed to keep fighting for the other prisoners still locked up in “Vladimir Putin’s regime.”

“Thousands of people have been affected in the same way our family has been affected … This is a victory, but this is only the beginning,” she said.

“We understand that there are over a thousand political prisoners in Russia, that there are thousands of Ukrainians, civilian hostages and war prisoners, not to mention kidnapped Ukrainian kids. And we understand there are over a thousand political prisoners in neighboring Belarus. So, the fight will have to continue.”

‘Absolutely certain’ he was being led to execution

The night he was taken from the prison in Omsk, 2,700 kilometers (1,600 miles) away from Moscow, ahead of the prisoner swap, Kara-Murza said prison guards had burst into his cell at 3 a.m. telling him to “get up, get dressed and to get ready.”

“I was absolutely certain in that moment that I was going to be let out and get executed,” he said.

But Kara-Murza was taken to a passenger airport in Omsk and loaded onto a plane headed for Moscow.

After spending nearly a year locked in a tiny cell in solitary confinement with no one to talk to, Kara-Murza said he was suddenly thrust into “the middle of a busy passenger airport with normal people, families, kids, walking around.”

He was transferred to Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison and held incommunicado with no idea he would soon be released.

Guards told him to dress in the only civilian clothes he had – a night shirt and rubber flip-flops he used in the shower – before taking him to a bus in the prison courtyard.

“It was a really a picture out of Hollywood movie. There was a row of men in black balaclavas covering their faces,” he said. “It was only then at the very last moment when I saw my friends and colleagues on that bus … that’s when I knew what was happening.”

Included in the release was a host of Russian activists, human rights defenders and opposition figures.

The sweeping deal involved 24 detainees in total and was the result of years of complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany, ultimately leading Berlin to agree to Moscow’s key demand – releasing convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov.

Kara-Muza said he stepped off the plane in Ankara, Turkey and was handed a phone with US President Joe Biden calling. Standing next to Biden in the Oval Office in Washington, DC and joining the call were his wife and kids.

Speaking to his family for the first time since his release, Kara-Muza said, “I don’t believe what’s happening. I still think I’m sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk instead of hearing your voice.”

‘Psychological torture’

On Monday, Kara-Murza said that while physical torture is rife in Russia’s prison system, high profile political prisoners are kept isolated in an “enforced solitude” that is “no better than physical torture.”

“Every day is like Groundhog Day. It’s meaningless, it’s endless and it’s exactly the same,” he said. “When you have absolutely nobody to like exchange a single word with, it really starts to get on your mind.”

Kara-Murza described the brutal conditions of being kept in a tiny cell all day with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

“You wake up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning with an official wake-up call. Your bunk gets attached to the wall so there’s no way you can lie or properly sit down all day. All you can do is just walk around the cell,” he said.

Inmates were allowed a pen and paper for only 90 minutes a day, and “the only time I got taken out of the cell is to go out for a so-called walk, which is basically just walking around in a circle in a small covered internal prison courtyard.”

While held in the “special regime” Penal Colony No. 7 in Omsk, Kara-Murza said conditions were “really harsh” but one “big plus” was the cats that would walk around the facility.

“When I was walking around in the courtyard the cats would come in and sit next to the metal bars and I was able to have a conversation with them. These were my only interlocutors,” he said.

Now enjoying his freedom and time with his family, Kara-Murza has promised to return to Russia.

“I know that Russia will change, and I will be back to my homeland,” he said, adding, “it will be much quicker” than anyone might think.

His wife Evgenia agreed: “The fight continues. We’re going to have to do everything we can to bring down this regime and this evil,” she said.

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