Evgenia Kara-Murza speaks at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council during Russia’s Universal Periodic Review debate.
Full remarks:
Mr. President, I am honored to address the United Nations Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch.
I am advocacy director at the Free Russia Foundation and the wife of Russian politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, sentenced to 25 years of strict regime for exposing the numerous crimes committed over the years by the Russian government.
Section A.5 of Russia’s report to the Universal Periodic Review says that—and I quote— “According to article 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, human beings and their rights and freedoms are the supreme value”. And Section B.16 states that—and I quote—“The President of the Russian Federation is the guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and of human and civil rights and freedoms.”
Meanwhile, according to a recent independent media investigation, since 2018 the total number of Russian citizens who faced administrative or criminal charges for exercising free speech comes to an astonishing 116,000 people.
There have been more politically motivated trials during Putin’s last presidential term alone than under Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev combined.
We see people being persecuted for laying flowers to slain opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny, and any kind of anti-war speech in the country, whose government has for two years been carrying on an aggressive war against Ukraine, is harshly punished with Stalin-era prison terms.
One week ago, Vladimir Putin became — for the fifth time! — President of the Russian Federation following a highly questionable procedure that international observers were banned from monitoring.
I have come here to ask the Russian government: How is it exactly that Vladimir Putin guarantees human and civil rights and freedoms?
Do legitimate leaders, who enjoy the support of the population, persecute voters for questioning their policies?
Do legitimate leaders eliminate opposition and give themselves personal exemptions from term-limits?
To quote my husband: “Sometimes the most powerful tool of all is simply telling the truth. Vladimir Putin is not a legitimately elected president. He is a dictator and a usurper. It’s time the free world finally said so.”
