‘The threat to his life is off the charts’: Ilya Yashin calls on world leaders to secure release of his fellow Russian political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza

Jailed Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has called on E.U. leaders, the U.S. president, and the leadership of the U.N. to do everything possible to ensure his fellow political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza is released as soon as possible.

“Navalny’s murder made it clear that the life of every Russian political prisoner is in danger. But Kara-Murza’s situation is particularly worrying,” Yashin said in a statement published to Telegram Friday.

Yashin wrote that Alexey Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza have “much more in common than it might seem at first glance.” Both politicians, he said, have “created personal problems for Putin’s inner circle”; both have de-facto been declared “enemies of the state” in Russia; both have been subjected to prison conditions that amount to torture; and “most importantly, Putin has tried to kill both of them in the past.”

I understand that I’m a lone voice in the wilderness. But Vladimir Kara-Murza must be saved. The threat to his life is not just a real one — it’s off the charts.

Yashin called on Western leaders to use every diplomatic tool at their disposal to secure Kara-Murza’s release. “Do it before it’s too late,” he stressed.