Vladimir Kara-Murza has always been one to speak his mind. That's part of what got him a 25-year sentence in a Russian prison. And now, two months after his release from a Siberian gulag in a historic prisoner swap, the Russian-British political activist is still speaking his truth to anyone, and any country, who will listen. "I'm feeling totally surreal as if I've been watching some kind of movie for these past several weeks," Kara-Murza said to WFAA during his visit to Dallas as a guest of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU. "Because I was absolutely convinced I was going to die in that Siberian prison." The political activist, journalist, author, and filmmaker was already an ardent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin when in April of 2022 he was arrested for speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and charged with treason and discrediting the military. In August 2024 he was one of 16 political prisoners, including American Paul Whelan, and one of seven Russian political prisoners, released in exchange for eight Putin confidants who were held in the U.S. and abroad on charges ranging from espionage to murder. "The war in Ukraine and repression in Russia have broken up, separated and destroyed millions and millions of families," said Evgenia Kara-Murza, International Advocacy Director of the Free Russia Foundation where Vladimir Kara-Murza also serves as vice president. "So we are among those lucky ones who are still blessed with having each other," she said of her husband. "And that is something that I will forever be grateful for." FULL STORY: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/former-russian-political-prisoner-vladimir-kara-murza-continues-worldwide-activism/287-268995be-7fd5-47a0-9b65-3d1269dc1b8c