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From Our Own Correspondent: The Trial of Vladimir Kara-Murza

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22/04/2023 GMT

The Trial of Vladimir Kara-Murza

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, The Trial of Vladimir Kara-Murza

The price of speaking out in Putin's Russia: the activist given 25 years behind bars.

The opposition activist jailed for 25 years for speaking out in Russia; reshaping how race is taught in Florida; drought in Catalonia in Spain; and cheese-making in Japan.

Pascale Harter introduces personal stories and analysis from Russia, the USA, Spain and Japan.

In Russia, a Moscow court has sentenced the political activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza, to 25 years in jail. It's the longest prison sentence handed down to a critic of the Russian president, but free speech has always been dangerous in President Putin’s Russia. Since the invasion of Ukraine, artists, poets and journalists are among those who've been detained. Even so, the treatment of Vladimir Kara-Murza has been seen as especially harsh. Sarah Rainsford exchanged letters with him while he’s been in prison, and reflects on his sentence.

The American state of Florida is leading a national Republican movement to reshape what schoolchildren are taught about race. State governor Ron DeSantis has said new laws, brought in last July, are necessary to shield children from inappropriate content and liberal indoctrination on issues of race and sexual orientation. Chelsea Bailey visited one Florida high school, to hear about the impact of these changes on teachers, and on one special guest speaker. 

There hasn't been any sustained rain in Catalonia in north-east Spain for two-and-a-half years now - it's the region's worst drought since 1905 when records began. Residents are worried that more of the intense heatwaves that hit much of Europe last year are on their way again, when many of Catalonia’s reservoirs are already at record lows. Guy Hedgecoe visited one of them.

And in Japan, a new generation of cheese-makers are overseeing a blossoming of an artisanal cheese scene - Amy Guttman reveals the Japanese dairy industry's long and rich history that includes an Emperor, World War Two and an imported butter-churning machine from Wisconsin. 

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Production coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

(Photo by Moscow City Court Press - service handout via EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

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