Wife worried:

Putin opponent transferred to prison hospital

The imprisoned Russian Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Mursa has been transferred to a prison hospital, according to his wife. "His lawyers have been denied access to him," wrote Yevgeniya Kara-Mursa in a post on Friday. She did not know how her husband was currently doing. 

The opposition figure's relatives had previously expressed concerns about his state of health. According to them, Kara-Mursa suffers from a nervous system disorder as a result of two poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017.

British call for immediate release
The UK had previously called for the immediate release and urgent treatment of the 42-year-old, who also has British citizenship.

Sentenced to 25 years in prison for "high treason"
Kara-Mursa, one of the most prominent critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2023 for "high treason" and "spreading false information" about the conflict in Ukraine. This is an exceptionally long prison sentence.

Poisoning attempts
As reported by various international media, including "Der Spiegel", the Russian secret service was involved in the poisoning attempts. Kara-Mursa was close to the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal colony in the Arctic in February. Concerns about the 42-year-old have been growing since Navalny's death.