Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian democracy activist, author, and filmmaker. He was a longtime colleague of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and chairs the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. Kara-Murza is a former deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian State Duma. He has testified before Parliaments in Europe and North America and played a key role in the passage of the Magnitsky legislation that imposed targeted sanctions on Russian human rights violators in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and several EU countries. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Kara-Murza “one of the most passionate and effective advocates” for the law; U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) commended him as “a courageous advocate for the democratic process and fundamental universal human rights”. 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. He is a contributing writer to the Washington Post and has previously worked for the BBC, RTVi, Ekho Moskvy, Kommersant, and other media outlets. He directed two documentary films, They Chose Freedom and Nemtsov, and is the author of Reform or Revolution: The Quest for Responsible Government in the First Russian State Duma and a contributor to Russia’s Choices: The Duma Elections and After, Russian Liberalism: Ideas and People, Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law, and Boris Nemtsov and Russian Politics: Power and Resistance. Kara-Murza led international efforts to commemorate Nemtsov, including with street designations in Washington D.C. and Vilnius. He is a co-founder of the Open Russia movement, a board member at the Free Russia Foundation, and a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago, leading a seminar course on contemporary Russia. Kara-Murza has been profiled on CBS 60 Minutes and NBC Nightly News, and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and BBC Newsnight. He is a recipient of the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, the Sakharov Prize for Journalism as an Act of Conscience, the Geneva Summit Courage Award, the Train Foundation’s Civil Courage Prize, and the Oxi Courage Award. He holds an M.A. (Cantab.) in History from Cambridge. He is married, with three children.