Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner, will present Gone Today, Here Tomorrow: The Fight for Democracy as part of the Watkins Lecture Series on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. inside Blackwell Auditorium at the Center for the Performing Arts. Reserve your ticket here.

A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza has served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. In April 2022, he was arrested in Moscow for publicly denouncing the invasion of Ukraine and the war crimes committed by Russian forces. Following a closed-door trial at the Moscow City Court, he was sentenced to 25 years for “high treason” and kept in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison in Siberia. He was released in August 2024 as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War negotiated by the U.S. and German governments.

Kara-Murza is a contributing writer at the Washington Post, winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for his columns written from prison, and has previously worked for Echo of Moscow, BBC, RTVi, Kommersant, World Affairs, and other media organizations. He has directed three documentary films and is the author or contributor to several books on Russian history and politics. Kara-Murza currently serves as vice-president at the Free Russia Foundation, as senior advisor at Human Rights First, and as senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He is a recipient of several awards, including the Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and is an honorary fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

RMC’s Watkins Lecture Series

The Watkins Lecture Series was established in 1999 by Marion Watkins Herget and Dr. George D. Watkins ’44 and is named in honor of their parents, who owned and operated the Herald-Progress newspaper. The series brings together the Town of Ashland and RMC communities—two entities important to the Watkins family.

The Watkins’ gift has provided lecture attendees the opportunity to hear from a host of notable speakers, including Bill Bryson, Soledad O’Brien, Ari Shapiro, Nina Totenberg, James Carville, Julian Bond, Bob Woodward, David Gergen, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, and Anthony Ray Hinton.

The event is free to the public, but tickets are required. Reserve your ticket here.