BY YASMEEN SERHAN
ELECTIONS
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY THIS MARCH was more of a coronation than an election. With the political system heavily skewed in his favor and all significant opponents disqualified, jailed, or dead, the vote was almost entirely pro forma. Still, the Russian opposition lives on—not just in would-be leaders behind bars like Vladimir Kara-Murza, who following the death of Alexei Navalny is now Russia’s most high-profile political prisoner, but also in the spouses who take up their advocacy when they’re no longer able to do it themselves.
Ever since Vladimir’s arrest in April 2022 for criticizing the war in Ukraine, Evgenia Kara-Murza has spent most of her days traveling the world to meet with foreign dignitaries, testify before committees, and talk to journalists—all in a bid to bring her husband, and the scores of other political prisoners in Russia, home. When TIME first sat down with her on the sidelines of the 15th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy last year, she stressed that she was no politician. “I never wanted to be a public figure,” she said.
Yet there she was, delivering speeches and giving interviews about the plight of political prisoners, the importance of supporting Ukraine against Russia’s ongoing invasion, and the need for Magnitsky sanctions, which target officials who violate human rights. “She basically stepped into his shoes and took over from his work as a member of the Russian opposition, speaking not just about his situation, but about the situation of other political prisoners,” says Bill Browder, a British American anticorruption campaigner and close friend of the Kara-Murza family. “She feels it’s her duty to be the best possible representative of him when he’s unable to represent himself.”
Born on the Kuril Islands in Russia’s far east, Evgenia spent much of her childhood traveling around the Soviet Union (her father was in the coast guard). It was after her family settled in Moscow that, at the age of 11, she first met Vladimir. Though at 14, Vladimir moved with his mother to Britain while Evgenia remained in Russia, pursuing a degree at Moscow State Linguistic University, they reconnected in their 20s and have been together ever since.
