John McCain's Russian dissident friend, Vladimir Kara-Murza, jailed after Arizona speech

Last week a Russian court jailed Vladimir Kara-Murza for comments he made before the Arizona House of Representatives last month.

Kara-Murza is a human-rights activist and pro-democracy leader. He was a friend of the late Sen. John McCain.

He came to Arizona to talk about the cruel treatment received by Russians who speak openly about individual freedom, democratic principles and rule of law. He opposed the invasion of Ukraine. He is one of those brave souls who challenges the brutal autocracy of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

McCain is gone, however, and in Congress now Arizona has Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, two Putin apologists. So much so, that they were among six Republicans in the House to vote against a bill directing the White House to prepare a report on war crimes committed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Condemn it in Russia. Support it here?

When he returned to Russia, Kara-Murza was arrested and jailed. He’s being charged with “spreading false information” when he spoke to members of the Arizona House, the kind of trumped up charges that could land him in jail for 10 years.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers issued a statement after Kara-Murza’s arrest saying, “I am deeply disturbed over news reports regarding the arrest and political persecution of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza. Don’t forget about these freedom fighters, like Vladimir Kara-Murza. We must remember names!”

Bowers is being completely sincere.

But he heads a legislative body in which many members were willing to transform the United States into a Putin-like autocratic nation by overturning a certified election. Some of them, like Biggs and Gosar in Congress, probably have warm and fuzzy feelings for Putin as well.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted in support of Kara-Murza, saying, “Vladimir Kara-Murza is a hero. A friend of Sen. John McCain and fearless defender of freedom, his visit to Arizona was an honor for all of us. We are deeply troubled by his treatment in Russia.”

It’s a bit strange for Ducey to publicly declare that he is “deeply troubled” by the Russian autocrat’s treatment of Kara-Murza, since the governor has been silent about the members of his own political party who supported an attempted coup that would have put an autocratic, unelected despot in the White House.

Trump, too many Republicans support Putin

Just on Tuesday Republican Sen. Rand Paul was making excuses for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, even trotting out Putin’s very own excuse, which is that Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union.

To which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “That does not give Russia the right to attack them.”

Paul’s logic would make it OK for Great Britain to invade the U.S., since we were once part of the British empire.

Kara-Murza, who has survived two suspected poisonings by Russian authorities, said in Phoenix, “These are very dark times in Russia today. These are times when we have hundreds of political prisoners and that number is only going to grow.”

Since Donald Trump was president, too many Republicans have shown stomach-turning support for Putin, inspired by Trump himself.

Like the time a TV host pointed out to Trump that Putin is a killer and Trump responded, “We’ve got a lot of killers ... What, you think our country’s so innocent?”

There's 'no moral equivalence,' McCain once said

McCain was alive when Trump said that.

In an angry speech after Trump’s comment, the senator brought up the alleged poisoning of Kara-Murza (who would be a pallbearer at McCain’s funeral).

McCain then said, “There was no moral equivalence between the United States and Putin’s Russia. I repeat, there is no moral equivalence between that butcher and thug and KGB colonel and the United States of America, the country that Ronald Reagan used to call a shining city on a hill ... .”

We could use McCain these days.

That shining city on the hill seems to have suffered a power outage.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

For more opinions content, please subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: John McCain's Russian friend was jailed after Arizona House speech