Vladimir Putin's unjust treatment of Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich may help bring about his downfall – Scotsman comment

When Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza returned to his country from the US, where he spent time recovering from two near-fatal poison attacks, and then refused to leave despite Vladimir Putin’s increasing crackdown on dissent, he did so in full knowledge of his likely fate.

Yesterday’s 25-year prison sentence – to be served in a “strict regime correctional colony” – for criticising Putin's invasion of Ukraine was meant as a warning to all those who might similarly dare to question the despot in the Kremlin. However, Kara-Murza knew that his treatment would send another message, one that may contain the seeds of Putin’s downfall.

The way any government treats its critics is a key test of freedom. The more people Putin murders and throws in prison, the more Russians will realise what a monster he truly is. The treatment of opposition leader Alexi Navalny who, like Kara-Murza, was nearly killed by a state-backed poison plot, recuperated overseas, and then returned to Russia to be arrested and jailed is another example.

With the return of the gulags, Putin’s Russia is revealed as a country where freedom is dead. It is also a place where truth is not tolerated if it conflicts with his corrupted version of reality, a Soviet-era tactic that blighted scientific research for decades.

So brave journalists like the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich are persecuted. Gershkovich, an American, has been arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage; others, like Anna Politkovskaya as long ago as 2006, have been murdered in circumstances that suggest government involvement.

The Wall Street Journal has made a selection of Gershkovich’s articles freely available online to show what he was doing. Headlines like “Putin’s war rhetoric rallies Russian border towns but nerves fray”, “Russians mourn Ukrainians killed in war at statue to a Ukrainian poet in Moscow”, and “Dozens of Russian draftees died in a Ukrainian strike. Putin’s war machine rolled on” speak of a journalist doing his job without fear or favour.

Putin’s trick has been to convince people that he and Russia are one and the same, so any criticism is treason. But, given he has stolen the power that lies with ordinary Russians, the real traitor is Putin. His increasingly desperate attempts to silence those who point this out send a loud message to all who will listen.