Vladimir V. Kara-Murza

Vladimir V. Kara-Murza (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Кара-Мурза) (born 7 September 1981, Moscow) is a Russian journalist and politician. Studied in Great Britain at the John Lyon School in Harrow, London, graduated with an M.A. in History (First Class) from Cambridge University (Trinity Hall). Began his media career at the age of 16 – first, in 1997–2000, as the London correspondent of Russia's Novye Izvestia newspaper, then, in 2000–2003, as correspondent of Kommersant daily. In 2002 was editor-in-chief of the London-based financial publication "Russian Investment Review".

From 2000 until 2003 Kara-Murza served as plenipotentiary representative of Russia's Union of Right Forces party in Great Britain, as well as adviser to party leader Boris Nemtsov, with whom he co-authored several analytical articles. In the 2003 Russian parliamentary election Kara-Murza contested the Chertanovsky constituency in Moscow as the democratic opposition candidate, with the backing from Union of Right Forces and Yabloko parties. According to international and domestic monitors, the campaign's coverage in state-controlled media was heavily biased in favour of the pro-government United Russia party, which emerged with more than two-thirds of the seats in the new State Duma. In Chertanovsky constituency, Kara-Murza came second out of 10 candidates, receiving 23,800 votes (9 per cent) and ceding the Duma seat to United Russia candidate Vladimir Gruzdev.

In January 2004 along with several other opposition figures, including Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Bukovsky and Garry Kasparov, Kara-Murza co-founded the pro-democracy Committee 2008. In April 2004 he became Washington DC bureau chief of RTVi television network.

In 2005 Kara-Murza produced a four-part TV documentary, "They Chose Freedom", dedicated to the history of the Soviet dissident movement. The documentary was based on interviews with prominent Russian dissidents, including Vladimir Bukovsky, Elena Bonner and Sergei Kovalev. It was aired on RTVi in November 2005.

On October 20, 2005 Kara-Murza was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the Union of Right Forces party in the United States by the new Union of Right Forces leader Nikita Belykh. Along with Yabloko's U.S. representative, Andrei Piontkovsky, he became co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko joint representative mission in the United States.

On February 16, 2006 the federal political council of the Union of Right Forces appointed Kara-Murza to the newly-established Commission on the Unification of Democratic Forces, chaired by Boris Nemtsov. Other members of the Commission include former Duma deputy Boris Nadezhdin and "Liberal Mission" foundation president Yevgeny Yasin.

In December 2006 Kara-Murza was nominated by the Union of Right Forces as a candidate for elections to the Moscow regional parliament. However, his candidacy was later withdrawn because of a new federal law forbidding Russians who hold dual citizenship from running for elected office. In April 2007 Kara-Murza, with the backing of the Union of Right Forces, challenged the law in the Russian Constitutional Court on the grounds that it directly violates the constitutional right of every Russian citizen to vote and to be elected. As of October 2007, the case was still pending.

In May 2007 Kara-Murza initiated the nomination of Vladimir Bukovsky, a writer and prominent Soviet-era dissident, as a candidate in the 2008 Russian presidential election. He currently serves as the national coordinator of Bukovsky's presidential campaign committee, which includes such prominent opposition figures as Yuri Ryzhov, Viktor Shenderovich, Andrei Piontkovsky and Alexander Podrabinek.

Vladimir Kara-Murza is married with one daughter. He is the son of Vladimir A. Kara-Murza.

External links

* [http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/r/russia/russia20033.txt Results of the Russian parliamentary election, 7 December 2003]
* [http://www.newsru.com/russia/01dec2005/film.html "They Chose Freedom", TV documentary (in Russian)]
* [http://sps.ru/?id=219197 "Film on Soviet Dissidents Presented at Harvard University", SPS.ru, 7 March 2006]
* [http://prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2007/5/3/38126.html "Journalist disputes revision of election legislation in Constitutional Court", Prima-News Agency, 3 May 2007]
* [http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2007/5/28/38275.html "Vladimir Bukovsky Will Run for President of Russia in 2008", Prima-News Agency, 28 May 2007]