Canadian security forum honors Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Vladimir Kara-Murza

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — A Canadian security forum on Saturday presented an award to Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was freed from prison earlier this year in a massive prisoner exchange.

The Halifax International Security Forum presents the award annually in honor of U.S. Sen. John McCain, who died in 2018, to “individuals from any country who have demonstrated uncommon leadership in the pursuit of human justice.”

The forum attracts military officials, United States senators, diplomats and scholars.

“I am humbled beyond words to be receiving this prize, but I view it first and foremost as your recognition of all my fellow Russian citizens who have the courage to stand up to Putin's regime and to call out his murderous war in Ukraine in full knowledge what the price of that will be,” Kara-Murza said.

McCain was a regular at the forum and his son, Jack McCain, presented Kara-Murza with the award.

Kara-Murza was a pall bearer at McCain's funeral. “It was described as his last dig at Vladimir Putin,” Jack McCain said.

Kara-Murza was freed in the massive prisoner exchange earlier this year with the West — the largest since the Cold War. He had been imprisoned in Russia since April 2022 and was convicted of treason for denouncing the war in Ukraine.

He rose to prominence as a journalist and did columns as a contributor for The Washington Post from his prison cell. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary earlier this year.

In 2015 and 2017, he suffered two near-fatal poisonings and developed polyneuropathy, a condition that deadens the feeling in his limbs. He blamed the poisonings on Russian authorities.

Kara-Murza rejected the charges against him as punishment for standing up to Putin.

Past winners of the John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service have included the people of Hong Kong for their “fight for their rights in the face of oppression from the government of China” and the people of Lesbos, Greece, “for their valiant actions to rescue refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East.”

A Navy pilot, John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other American servicemembers.

“Like Senator McCain, Kara-Murza was willing to stand up for his beliefs even if it came at the price of his freedom,” said Peter Van Praagh, the President of the Halifax International Security Forum.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer speaks at The Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada. (AP Photo/Rob Gillies)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 37 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday.

The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people.

Shiite Muslims make up about 15% of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities.

Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram.

The station house police officer in Kurram, Saleem Shah, said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property.

Intense gunfire was ongoing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area.

“Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,” said Shah.

Videos shared with The Associated Press showed a market engulfed by fire and orange flames piercing the night sky. Gunfire can also be heard.

The location of Thursday’s attack was also targeted by armed men, who marched on the area.

Survivors of the gun ambush said assailants emerged from a vehicle and sprayed buses and cars with bullets. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack and police have not identified a motive.

Dozens of people from the district’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been killed since July, when a land dispute erupted in Kurram that later turned into general sectarian violence.

Shiite Muslims chant slogans to condemn the killing of Shiite Muslims by gunmen in an ambush in Kurram district, during a demonstration in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)