The Russian Opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has been detained in Moscow after criticising President Vladimir V. Putin for the invasion of Ukraine.

Kara-Murza was supposed to appear in court on charges of disobeying the police, a local news agency quoted his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, as saying. The activist was detained near his home and held overnight at a central Moscow police station without access to his lawyer, his wife said in an email.

Prokhorov was able to see him on Tuesday and posted a picture on Facebook of the two men awaiting a court hearing.

In interviews in recent days with MSNBC and CNN, Kara-Murza blasted the Kremlin for shutting down all independent news media outlets in the country and criminalising even the act of calling the invasion of Ukraine a war.

Kara-Murza was poisoned twice in recent years with undetermined toxins that sent him into comas that lasted days and left him with neurological damage.