US sanctions 6 individuals over arrest of prominent Russian activist

The Biden administration on Friday sanctioned six people the U.S. has associated with the arrest and detention last year of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian pro-democracy activist who has been jailed since April for his opposition to the war in Ukraine.

The sanctioned individuals include three Russian government officials accused of overseeing Kara-Murza’s detention, including Russian Deputy Minister of Justice Oleg Sviridenko and two judges, Diana Mishchenko and Ilya Kozlov.

The State Department also announced visa restrictions against three Russian nationalists accused of “serious human rights abuse” related to the detention of Kara-Murza, including Andrei Zadachin and Elena Lenskaya.

Lenskaya is a Moscow judge who ordered the activist to be held in pre-trial detention, according to the State Department.

Zadachin serves as a special investigator on Russia’s Investigative Committee and is accused of overseeing the criminal investigation against Kara-Murza.

Zadachin, Lenskaya and an expert witness in the Kara-Murza case, Danila Mikheev, were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department.

Kara-Murza, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, was arrested in Moscow in April of last year after speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The longtime activist was associated with Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in Moscow in 2015.

Kara-Murza himself survived poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017, both of which Russian officials have denied carrying out.

In October, while in Russian custody, Kara-Murza won a top European human rights prize, which his wife accepted on his behalf.