A British political prisoner in Siberia is almost certain to die unless freed soon, according to a prominent human rights campaigner. Vladimir Kara-Murza is one of at least 700 political prisoners currently held in Russian jails, nearly three times as many as at the end of the Soviet era. All are victims of a system seen to have taken a “totalitarian” turn this year with the death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic labor camp, the assassination of the helicopter pilot and defector Maxim Kuzminov in Spain, and the installation of Putin in power for six more years after a rigged election.
Putin signed spring call-up papers for 150,000 fresh Russian conscripts, on top of nearly 600,000 enlisted since the start of the war. The new conscripts are not legally supposed to be sent to the front but will enable others to go in their place. In the meantime, Germany refuses to send long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. $60 billion earmarked for US military aid remains stuck in Congress despite bipartisan support because the House speaker, Mike Johnson, refuses to allow members to vote on it. The EU has agreed a long-term aid package worth €50 billion, but only a tenth of it is for weapons.
