MOSCOW, Apr 17 If the US ambassadors and Britain has mastered the steps of the Moscow City Court, then they need to refresh their memories of the steps of the Foreign Ministry in order to remember what diplomats should do, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on the visit to the announcement of the verdict on Vladimir Kara-Murza * (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) by foreign diplomats.
Forty diplomats from 25 countries, including the United States, Great Britain, France and Canada, attended the announcement of Kara-Murze*'s verdict, the press service of the Moscow City Court reported.
«Kara-Murza * was not lucky with the defenders: with such friends there is no need for enemies — if anyone had doubts, then the Anglo-Saxon women, as they used to be called, completely dispelled them. I think if the ambassadors of the United States and Britain have mastered the steps of the Moscow City Court, then they need to refresh their memories of the steps of the Foreign Ministry, so that they remember what diplomats should do and what not,» Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel. She also posted a video of the ambassadors speaking on the steps of the Moscow City Court to reporters.
On Monday morning, the Moscow City Court sentenced Kara-Murza* to 25 years in a strict regime colony in the case of treason and discrediting the Russian army. During the announcement, it was noted that Kara-Murza * has dual citizenship: in addition to Russia, he is a citizen of Great Britain and has a residence permit in the United States. Before his arrest, he was registered in Moscow, while living in the States. According to the investigation, a politician in the House of Representatives of the US state of Arizona, “motivated by political hatred,” announced “deliberately false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces to bomb residential areas, maternity hospitals, hospitals and schools” in Ukraine.
Later, a second criminal case was opened against him — about working in a «foreign or international NGO, in respect of which a decision was made to recognize it as undesirable.» The third and most serious was the charge under article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation «Treason», the sanction of which provides for up to 20 years in prison. He is charged with three episodes: speeches in the NATO Assembly, in the Helsinki Committee in Oslo and in the USA.
All three cases are combined into one proceeding, the investigation was conducted by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. As Kara-Murza's lawyer* Vadim Prokhorov said, this is the first time that the RF Investigative Committee is investigating a case of treason — all the rest are being handled by the FSB.
Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr.* is a member of the opposition movement in Russia, a regular guest at various «democratic forums» in Europe and the United States, the son of the famous journalist and oppositionist Vladimir Kara-Murza (1959-2019).
* An individual acting as a foreign agent