william rick singer was convicted of funnelling money from wealthy parents to university coaches to secure a place for their children at various elite american colleges. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. in russia, voicing opposition to putin s war in ukraine is a crime. it can mean years injail. imagine, then, the resolve of a russian opposition activist who returned to his homeland after the ukraine invasion in order to speak out against the putin regime from within. not only that, vladimir kara murza had already survived two apparent poisonings inside russia. he is now languishing in a russian prison. his wife, evgenia kara murza,
poisonings inside russia. he is now languishing in a russian prison. his wife, evgenia kara murza, is my guest today. has putin s repression effectively neutralised meaningful opposition? evgenia kara murza in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for having me here. it s a pleasure to have you on the show, and i must begin by asking you about the condition of your husband, vladimir. he s been imprisoned in russia since last april.
continue working both inside the country and outside of the country, trying to encourage protest, offering support to those who do protest and end up in prisons or in psychiatric hospitals. there are organisations like memorial or 0vd info or mediazona or others, who raise awareness about mass political persecution in russia and about the methods used by the regime against protesters. right. and i believe that those are the things that show that, yes, there are no mass protests, it s true. and i believe that those are the things that show that, yes, there are no mass protests, it s true. whether i would like to see them in the streets, of course i would. i would love to see millions in the streets. and i hope that those people are just waiting to see an opportunity for a change. right. now, in the meantime. erm. in the meantime, evgenia,
decades, we re seeing what we re seeing. an extremely atomised, depoliticised society that believes that the only way to survive this is to keep quiet and somehow, yeah, somehow fight for survival. so, i have to. sadly, we re almost out of time, evgenia. i have to end because i m so mindful that this is very personal and very difficult for you. i have to end with just a personal thought. you ve described the difficulties that you and vladimir have confronted. vladimir is now in prison, faces the possibility of a very long prison sentence. where s the hope? the hope is, the hope is in the fact that everyone has finally realised or was forced to stop closing their eyes to who mr putin truly is. and now we understand that we re basically in the same world, because ukrainians are obviously not fighting forjust their land. they re fighting for democracy. they re fighting this global fight of the good
since then, all the elections have been, have been stolen. at the end of those two decades, we re seeing what we re seeing. an extremely atomised, depoliticised society that believes that the only way to survive this is to keep quiet and somehow, yeah, somehow fight for survival. so, i have to. sadly, we re almost out of time, evgenia. i have to end because i m so mindful that this is very personal and very difficult for you. i have to end with just a personal thought. you ve described the difficulties that you and vladimir have confronted. vladimir is now in prison, faces the possibility of a very long prison sentence. where s the hope? the hope is, the hope is in the fact that everyone has finally realised or was forced to stop closing their eyes to who mr putin truly is. and now we understand that we re basically in the same world, because ukrainians are obviously not fighting forjust their land. they re fighting for democracy.