Australia imposed sanctions against the FSB officers involved in the poisoning of Vladimir Kara-Murza, as well as investigators and judges

Australia imposed sanctions against 13 Russians, whom he considers involved in the persecution of Vladimir Kara-Murza. According to the country's Foreign Ministry’s statement, three FSB officers involved in the poisoning of the oppositionist were included in the sanctions list. Another 10 people, including the Deputy Minister in the Russian Government, were on the list for involvement in the illegal and politically motivated criminal prosecution of Kara-Murza.

Sanctions include the freezing of assets and a ban on traveling to Australia. “We also call for the immediate and unconditional liberation of Mr. Kara-Murza and all other political activists,” the Australian Foreign Ministry said.

On December 7, the data of 13 citizens of Russia appeared on the consolidated sanctions list, published on the Australian Foreign Ministry. These are FSB officers: Alexander Samofal, Valery Sukharev (his name of the cover is also included in the list with a separate line - Nikolai Gorokhov) and Konstantin Kudryavtsev (the name of the cover - Konstantin Sokolov); Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Oleg Sviridenko, Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee Eduard Kaburneev, Sergey Goryainov and Elena Leonenko, Head of the Main Investigative Department of the SK Denis Kolesnikov, investigator of the UK Andrei Tsemin, prosecutor Boris Loktionov, judge Elena Lenskaya, Vitaliy Belitsky and Ekaterina Dorokhina.

They tried to poison Vladimir Kara-Murzu twice-in 2015 and 2017. In April 2023, the Moscow City Court sentenced the opposition policy to 25 years in a maximum security colony. Kara-Murza was found guilty of Gosomen, the implementation of the “undesirable” organization and the spread of “fakes” about the Russian army.

As is known from the investigation of The Insider and Bellingcat, published in February 2021, the same employees of the FSB NII-2 and the Second Service of the FSB (the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional system and the fight against terrorism), who were engaged in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, tried to poison Kara-Murza. In particular, it turned out that employees of the FSB Alexander Samofal, Valery Sukharev and Konstantin Kudryavtsev were involved in the poisoning of Kara-Murza.