in solitary

He was jailed for his role in them, and placed in solitary confinement.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was freed from jail in August after spending over two years - 11 months of them in solitary confinement – told the BBC he was “proud” to see a “sea of faces” at the rally – although the march was smaller than some people had anticipated.

He’d survived riots, fights and years in solitary confinement.

In the early years, he said, he acted up, raking up disciplinary infractions that landed him in solitary confinement.

"They're killing him softly in solitary confinement in this death cell," she told the BBC in July 2023, after he had been allowed to call his family for the first time in two years.