MOSCOW, Russia: Vladimir Kara-Murza, 40, a prominent Russian opposition activist, was sentenced to 15 days in jail in Moscow for disobeying police orders while leaving his home on Monday night.

An outspoken critic of the invasion of Ukraine, Kara-Murza, 40, was accused of “changing his walking pace and trying to escape” when police approached him outside his house on Monday evening, his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, said.

It was not immediately clear if the arrest was linked to Kara-Murza’s opposition to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but it comes amid an unprecedented crackdown on independent media and anti-war dissent. Last month, the Russian parliament passed a law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” news about the military.

Aleksandr Podrabinek, a former Soviet dissident who went to the Khamovniki police station on Monday to support Kara-Murza, told the independent news outlet Sota that he believed he had been detained because the authorities were “angered by his courage.”

Hours prior to his detention, Kara-Murza appeared on CNN, where he described the Kremlin as a “regime of murderers”.

“I have absolutely no doubt that the Putin regime will end over this war in Ukraine .doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen tomorrow. The two main questions are time and price, and by price, I do not mean monetary I mean the price of human blood and human lives, and it has already been horrendous, but the Putin regime will end over this and there will be a democratic Russia after Putin,” Kara-Murza said.