Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and the school’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (CERES) welcome Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian politician, author, historian, documentary filmmaker and former political prisoner, as the center’s first Dissident-in-Residence. Kara-Murza joins SFS through a program of the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), Frontlines of Freedom: On Campus.
“As a political prisoner and persecuted oppositionist, Vladimir Kara-Murza has shown a fortitude and principled dissent that is a shining example for the world today,” says Professor Michael David-Fox, director of CERES. “His residency at Georgetown—and specifically at CERES—at a moment of surging authoritarianism will be an incredible boon for our students, our programs and our faculty.”
As Dissident-in-Residence at CERES, Kara-Murza will hold a speaker series as well as smaller roundtables. He’ll also sponsor a Dissident Discussion Group—a standing discussion group based in CERES and open to other interested SFS graduate students.
“The global struggle for democracy and human rights is an endeavour that spans generations,” says Kara-Murza. “I am grateful for the opportunity to share my experience with the younger generation—today’s university students and the leaders of tomorrow—and I cannot think of a better place to do so than Georgetown University.”
A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, he played a key role in the adoption of Magnitsky sanctions against top Russian officials by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada and Australia. For this work, he was twice poisoned and left in a coma; a joint media investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider and Der Spiegel has identified FSB officers behind the attacks.
In April 2022, Kara-Murza was arrested in Moscow for publicly denouncing the invasion of Ukraine and war crimes committed by Russian forces. Following a closed-door trial at the Moscow City Court, he was sentenced to 25 years for “high treason” and kept in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison in Siberia. He was released in August 2024 as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War negotiated by the U.S. and German governments.
Kara-Murza is a contributing writer at The Washington Post, winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for his columns written from prison, and has previously worked for Echo of Moscow, BBC, RTVi, Kommersant, World Affairs and other media organisations. He has directed three documentary films and is the author or contributor to several books on Russian history and politics. Kara-Murza also serves as vice-president at the Free Russia Foundation, as senior advisor at Human Rights First and as senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He was the founding chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom.
Kara-Murza is a recipient of several awards, including the Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and is an honorary fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He holds an M.A. (Cantab.) in History from Cambridge.
RDI builds partnerships with universities to bring life under authoritarianism and the dissident experience into sharp relief for the next generation. Their innovative approach of integrating dissidents into campus life helps to better prepare students to be informed global thinkers who will preserve and power America’s democracy for generations to come. RDI established its first Dissident-in-Residence program in partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s SNF Agora Institute in 2023.