Russia refuses passport to opposition politician freed in last year’s prisoner exchange
Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was part of the August 2024 prisoner swap between Russia and Western countries, said Thursday that the Russian authorities have refused to issue him a passport for foreign travel. He shared a scanned copy of the official denial, which he received at the Russian Embassy in the United States.
According to the document, Kara-Murza is barred from leaving Russia on the grounds of “evading obligations imposed by a court.” The nature of these “obligations” was not specified.
Kara-Murza quoted Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky: “They can’t imprison you legally, but they can’t release you legally either.” He also noted that during last year’s prisoner swap, the absence of a valid passport didn’t stop Russian authorities from flying him out of the country.
He likened the passport denial to stripping someone of their citizenship:
In effect, by sidestepping a direct constitutional ban, the Putin regime has revived the Soviet practice of stripping political opponents of their citizenship. Formally, of course, no one is being deprived of their citizenship — but without a valid passport, it’s impossible to exercise it in practice.
