Vladimir Kara-Murza stands down as FRF Vice President

The Free Russia Foundation has announced that Russian opposition politician, author, and historian Vladimir Kara-Murza will no longer serve as its vice president. The decision was taken by the foundation’s president, Natalia Arno, with the agreement of the board on August 3rd, 2021.

“Vladimir Kara-Murza is doing important work of representing Russia’s pro-democracy forces in the international arena and engaging international oversight mechanisms in response to the Kremlin’s violations of its human rights commitments – in other words, the work of citizen diplomacy on behalf of a free Russia,” Arno said in a statement. “Given that Vladimir spends most of his time in Russia – and for a Russian politician it cannot be otherwise – we don’t want to make it easy for the Kremlin to use the latest repressive laws on so-called ‘undesirable organizations’ against him.”

“It was an honor to work during these two years on the team of sincere and dedicated people who want to make sure that the words ‘free Russia’ could one day be written without quotation marks,” Kara-Murza said. “I am certain that day will come. I am also certain that the true ‘undesirables’, in the eyes of history and from the point of view of Russia’s interests, are the graduates of the Higher School of the KGB who are currently sitting in the Kremlin.”