It’s not every day that you find yourself talking on the telephone to the person who attempted to assassinate you. And it is not every person who can say they survived not just one, but two assassination attempts by Vladimir Putin’s death squads.
But our guest on the Power Vertical Podcast this week is such a person. Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza survived two poisoning attempts that were — according to the preponderance of evidence — carried out on the Kremlin’s orders. And last month, thanks to the awesome work of the investigative journalists at Bellingcat, he learned the identities of the Russian security agents who tried to kill him.
On this week’s episode, we’ll hear his story.
Listen to the podcast here:
Putin’s Death Squads
This is one of Brian’s most riveting podcasts. He talks to a great Russian (how often can you say that?): Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been poisoned twice and saved twice by the same doctor. Mr Kara-Murza pays tribute to Boris Nemtsov (‘the best president Russia never had and the finest person I ever met’) and explains what a terrible loss Boris was to the world and Russia. His campaign to have streets named after him close to Russian embassies has so far resulted in Kyiv, Prague and Washington DC having them, with London coming soon. ‘What finer way to pay tribute to a great Russian is there than to have streets named after him in all the free cities in the world? One day they will have them in Russia too’.
Mr Kara-Murza has moved his family to America for obvious reasons, yet insists on still traveling back to Russia frequently, despite the terrible risks.