Pro-democracy activist, vice chairman of Open Russia, and chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, Kara-Murza played a key role in the passage of the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on Russian human rights violators.

Kara-Murza heads Open Russia’s project to promote free and fair elections. He served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian State Duma. He has testified on Russian affairs before parliaments in Europe and North America. The Magnitsky Act, he says, is the only serious disincentive to corruption and human rights violations by Russian officials.

Twice, in 2015 and 2017, Kara-Murza was poisoned with an unknown substance and left in a coma. The attempts on his life were widely viewed as politically motivated. 

Kara-Murza is a contributing writer at the Washington Post and hosts a weekly show on Echo of Moscow radio, and has previously worked for the BBC, RTVi, Kommersant, and other media outlets. He directed three documentary films, They Chose Freedom, Nemtsov, and My Duty to Not Stay Silent; and is the author of Reform or Revolution: The Quest for Responsible Government in the First Russian State Duma and a contributor to several volumes, including Russian Liberalism: Ideas and People, Europe Whole and Free: Vision and Reality, and Boris Nemtsov and Russian Politics: Power and Resistance.

Kara-Murza is a recipient of the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, the Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act of Conscience, and the Geneva Summit Courage Award.