'Putin's downfall is inevitable and could happen at the snap of a finger': British activist freed from Siberian prison explains why Vladimir will be defeated and Russia become a democracy

A British-Russian dissident released from a Siberian camp in a prisoner exchange has declared Vladimir Putin's downfall 'inevitable' in his first major interview since returning to the UK.

Vladimir Kara-Murza was freed along with 15 others including Western journalists and other Russian dissidents on August 1 in the most extensive prisoner swap with Russia since the Cold War.

He had by then spent more than two years in detention for his opposition to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, having been arrested in April 2022 and jailed for 25 years in 2023.

Prior to his detention he was poisoned twice, he alleges by Russian agents, and to this day suffers the effects of nerve damage.

Now he says that Putin will ultimately lose his grip on power and will be replaced by people 'from the younger generation' who he believes will build a democratic Russia.

'Even if Vladimir Putin kills all of us, the current leaders of the opposition, others will come in our place from the younger generation... They will come and take our place to find a democratic Russia, even when none of us are there.'

Speaking to the Independent , Kara-Murza's message was clear - there will be a future in which Russia becomes a democracy.

But he also insisted that Western governments must develop a robust strategy to engage with a post-Putin Russia, warning that without such a plan, Ukraine and the rest of Europe would remain under threat.

'None of us knows when or precisely in what circumstances the next political change will come in Russia, but it will, because nothing is forever. It might be in three years; it might be in two months. But it will come.'

'We cannot base long-term political strategy on emotion,' he said.

'It has to be rational... based on what we want to happen, what we want to see, what we want Europe to look like 10 years down the line.'

The dissident went on to draw parallels between the sudden collapse of the Romanov empire in 1917 and the Soviet regime in 1991, suggesting that Putin's fall could come just as abruptly and that the West must be ready for it.

Besides his interview with the Independent, Kara-Murza attended a press conference in Westminster today where he declared he hoped that Russia's President lives a long life - so he can be brought to justice for his crimes.

He also urged Western governments to pursue more prisoner exchanges, saying he woke every morning and went to bed every night thinking about dissidents left behind in Russian jails.

'We must not stop, we must not rest, we must not relent until we get the others out,' he said.

Asked whether he was concerned his campaigning could encourage Putin to take more hostages, Kara-Murza said he would continue to take prisoners in any case 'because he is afraid of the truth'.

Arguing that the prisoner swap on August 1 had saved '16 human souls' from the 'hell' of Russia's prisons, he added: 'It wasn't a prisoner exchange, it was a life-saving operation and we need to look at it this way.'

Some of Kara-Murza's supporters, including his wife Evgenia, had previously called for the Foreign Office to do more to secure his release, especially as he holds a British passport.

But on Friday, Kara-Murza said Foreign Office officials along with politicians and others in the UK had ensured he never felt forgotten while he was imprisoned - something he said was the greatest fear of any political prisoner.

He said: 'I am deeply grateful for that. I don't know what was or was not happening behind the scenes, but to me the most important work is actually not behind the scenes, it's out in public.

'Because unless people talk about prisoners, unless people say their names, unless people show their faces, no exchanges and no negotiations will ever happen.'

Kara-Murza's press conference followed a breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Downing Street where he stressed that Putin must not be allowed to win in Ukraine or secure a 'face-saving exit' from the conflict.

He also thanked Lammy for advocating his cause as shadow foreign secretary and told the press conference he would be meeting former foreign secretary Lord David Cameron to thank him for his efforts as well.

The meeting capped of a week in which the freed dissident held a flurry of meetings with top Western officials.

On Tuesday, he visited Washington D.C. where he addressed lawmakers and diplomats in a US Senate hearing room.

'The word surreal doesn't even come close to describing what I feel now,' the dissident said at an event intended to highlight what participants described as the plight of hundreds of prisoners still detained in Russia for their political beliefs.

Coinciding with Kara-Murza's visit, Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week introduced the Bridge Act - legislation intended to protect Russians and Belarusians working to support democracy in their home countries.

'Whatever the cynics and the sceptics will tell you, advocacy works and public attention protects and public attention saves,' Kara-Murza said.