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Russian Dissident Vladimir Kara Murza: Poisoned Twice & Still Fighting for Russia

Russian Dissident Vladimir Kara Murza: Poisoned Twice & Still Fighting for Russia

February 10, 2022 @ 07:00 PM to February 10, 2022 @ - 08:00 PM
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***This event is AT CAPACITY. If you are not already registered, it will NOT BE POSSIBLE TO REGISTER ON-SITE at the event. You may still join this event virtually.***

About the Event:

Russian politician, dissident & human rights activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has the unfortunate distinction of having been poisoned twice in 2015 and 2017. After emerging from a coma after each incident, evidence pointed to the involvement of the FSB, Russia’s primary intelligence agency.

Having been a strong and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and his government for many years, Kara-Murza has bravely faced the threats to his life and continued his efforts to highlight human rights abuses and corruption in Russia. Despite the risks, he was a long time advisor to assassinated opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, and an advocate for prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Kara-Murza will discuss the current state of modern Russia and the outlook for the political opposition. He will also review the increasingly concerning foreign and military policy of Russia in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Kara-Murza will additionally address the realities and consequences of a possible war between Russia and Ukraine, and what realistic options exist for the U.S. and the Europe.

About the Speaker:

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Russian politician, human rights activist & Washington Post contributor 

Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, and historian. A longtime colleague of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he was a candidate for the Russian Parliament and served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, Kara-Murza played a key role in the adoption of targeted Magnitsky sanctions on Russian human rights violators in the United States, European Union, Canada, and Great Britain. U.S. Sen. John McCain called him “one of the most passionate and effective advocates for passage of the Magnitsky Act”; U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin described him as “a courageous advocate for the democratic process and fundamental universal human rights.”

Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza was poisoned and left in a coma; a subsequent media investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider has identified officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service who were behind the poisonings. He is a contributing writer at the Washington Post and hosts a weekly show on Echo of Moscow radio, and has previously worked for the BBC, RTVi, Kommersant, and other media outlets. He has directed three documentary films, They Chose Freedom, Nemtsov, and My Duty to Not Stay Silent; and is the author of Reform or Revolution: The Quest for Responsible Government in the First Russian State Duma and a contributor to several volumes, including Russian Liberalism: Ideas and People, Europe Whole and Free: Vision and Reality, and Boris Nemtsov and Russian Politics: Power and Resistance.

Kara-Murza led successful international efforts to commemorate Nemtsov, including with street designations in Washington and Vilnius. He was the founding chairman of the Nemtsov Foundation and served as vice president at Open Russia and the Free Russia Foundation; both organizations were designated as “undesirable” by Vladimir Putin’s government. Kara-Murza is a senior advisor at Human Rights First and a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago, leading a seminar course on contemporary Russia.

He has been profiled on CBS 60 Minutes and NBC Nightly News, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and BBC Newsnight. Kara-Murza is a recipient of several awards, including the Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act of Conscience, the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, and the Geneva Summit Courage Award. He holds an M.A. in History from Cambridge.

His numerous awards include: Magnitsky Human Rights Award; Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act of Conscience; Geneva Summit Courage Award; Train Foundation’s Civil Courage Prize; Oxi Courage Award; and the Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Prize from the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. Kara-Murza speaks Russian, English, and French.

Ticket Information

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Non-Members In-Person 02.10.22
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SWAC Students & Educators 02.10.22
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Event registration closed.
 

Date And Time

February 10, 2022 @ 07:00 PM to February 10, 2022 @ - 08:00 PM
 

Registration End Date

February 11, 2022
 

Location

Amegy Bank Tower, 1717 West Loop South, Houston, TX 77027
 

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