Russian dissident behind bars wins the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 8, 2024) – The McCain Institute at Arizona State University (ASU) congratulates Vladimir Kara-Murza for winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary, the highest prize in American journalism, for seven pieces written while behind bars in a Russian prison and published in The Washington Post.
“Kara-Murza is a longtime friend of the McCain Institute and the McCain family and was the 2022 recipient of our Courage and Leadership Award. This Pulitzer Prize acknowledges that, despite his best efforts, Putin cannot silence Kara-Murza or any of the Russian patriots who risk their lives to fight for democracy and freedom,” said McCain Institute Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Farkas.
The Pulitzer Prize board recognized Kara-Murza’s “passionate columns written at great personal risk from his prison cell warning of the consequences of dissent in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and insisting on a democratic future for his country.”
After Alexei Navalny’s death, Kara-Murza tops the list of Putin’s enemies. Like Navalny, Putin also poisoned Kara-Murza twice prior to his imprisonment, resulting in polyneuropathy, one of the conditions that should require, at minimum, a supervised medical release.
The McCain Institute has called on the U.S. government to declare Kara-Murza wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Act, sending a 26-page analysis of Kara-Murza’s case to the U.S. Department of State. The McCain Institute also calls for the release of Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, Ilya Yashin, along with Kara-Murza and the many other prisoners who have been unlawfully detained by Russia.
Learn more about the McCain Institute’s efforts to free Kara-Murza here.