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Sanctions over the Kara-Murza case, 31 July 2023
Summary
A look back at the British sanctions on officials behind the activist's treason conviction, and at a Pyongyang meeting days earlier.
What did London do when Vladimir Kara-Murza lost his appeal? On 31 July 2023, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on the judges and officials involved in the prosecution of the activist, who had failed to overturn his 25-year sentence for treason.
The measure was part of the wider state of Russia–United Kingdom relations, and it targeted people tied directly to the case rather than the Russian state at large. It was framed around opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia.
A meeting in Pyongyang
Four days earlier, on 27 July 2023, North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un met Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and a Chinese delegation in Pyongyang. The occasion was the 70th anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War.
Kim and Shoigu also attended an exhibition of North Korean ballistic missiles. Those missiles are prohibited by multiple United Nations resolutions, which China and Russia had endorsed.
Together, the two episodes show how Russia's relations with Western and Asian partners were moving in different directions in the final days of July 2023.
