VLADIMIR Kara-Murza, a prominent opponent of the Kremlin and its military campaign in Ukraine, is facing criminal charges over allegedly false information about the Russian army, his lawyer said today.

“Vladimir Kara-Murza is now in the Main Investigation Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee,” which probes major crimes, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on Facebook. 

Prokhorov added that a “criminal case” has been launched over the “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.

The law, introduced after Russia’s launch on February 24 of its military operation, imposes a sentence of up to 15 years in jail for publishing information about the military deemed false by the government.

It comes as part of Russia’s intensifying efforts to muzzle independent media and government critics during the campaign.

Asked about the criminal charges, the Kremlin today told reporters that “there is a law that is being implemented”.

“The Investigative Committee exercises its powers and duties in accordance with this law,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said without providing further detail. 

Kara-Murza, 40, is currently in custody after being sentenced to 15 days in detention for disobeying police orders.

The former journalist was a close associate of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated near the Kremlin in 2015, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned critic of President Vladimir Putin.

Kara-Murza claims he was poisoned twice – in 2015 and 2017 – because of his political activities, but he continues to live in Russia. – AFP, April 22, 2022.