In defiant speech, Kremlin critic Kara-Murza likens his trial to Stalin's USSR

FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition figures Yulia Galyamina and Vladimir Kara-Murza place flowers at the site of the assassination of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov while marking the 6th anniversary of Nemtsov's death, in central Moscow, Russia February 27, 2021. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Facing up to a quarter of a century in jail on treason charges he denies, Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza told a Moscow court on Monday his trial recalled one of Josef Stalin's show trials in the 1930s and said he had done nothing wrong.

Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and former journalist who holds Russian and British passports, has spent years as a politician opposing President Vladimir Putin and has lobbied foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions on Russia and individual Russians for purported human rights violations.