Minister rejects call for prisoner swap in case of jailed Vladimir Kara-Murza amid warnings he could be ‘next’
The government has rejected calls to consider a prisoner swap to free dual British-Russian citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza following warnings he could be “next” after the death of Alexei Navalny.
Conservative MP Bob Seely raised the case of Mr Kara-Murza in the Commons following a government statement on Mr Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died last week while being held in an arctic penal colony.
Mr Kara-Murza, a former journalist, spent years as a politician opposing Vladimir Putin before he was jailed for 25 years after being convicted for treason last year.
Raising his case in the House of Commons, Mr Seely said Mr Kara-Murza was “now the most high-profile political prisoner in Russia”.
Although he acknowledged that a prisoner swap “encourages state hostage taking”, he said Mr Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia, was “adamant that she now wants everything possible done to get Vladimir out” because of the fragile state of his health.
“If Putin can kill Navalny, he can kill Kara-Murza,” Mr Seely said.
“There is some criticism that the government have not done everything possible in the past.
“Will the minister reassure me that every option and every conceivable course of action to get Kara-Murza out, potentially including negotiated swaps with Russian spies in Sweden or wherever will be looked at? Otherwise, he will be next.”