Nov 11, 2023 at 7:39 PM Update: 19 minutes ago
“We want her back.” This is what the husband of American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, imprisoned in Russia, said in an interview with the news agency AP. Kurmasheva was arrested earlier this year after she went to Russia to visit her sick and elderly mother.
Kurmasheva is the second journalist from the United States to end up behind bars in Russia this year. The Wall Street Journalcorrespondent Evan Gershkovich, that happened too. He is still in custody and faces years in prison.
“Alsu should celebrate this anniversary (21 years of marriage to her husband, ed.) with me and our children at home, and not in a Russian prison,” Kurmasheva’s husband Pavel Butorin told AP. ‘We want her back. Alsu must be released as soon as possible.”
Kurmasheva worked for Radio Free Europe from Prague. She reported, among other things, on ethnic minority communities in the Russian republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. When she traveled to Russia this year to visit her mother, she was not working as a journalist, her husband says. When she wanted to fly back home, she was arrested at the airport.
Russia has labeled her a so-called foreign agent. She is accused by authorities of not registering as such when she went to Russia. Kurmasheva is being held in a detention center pending a trial in which she could face up to five years in prison.
Independent journalism in Russia under heavy pressure
“Alsu was aware of the risks associated with traveling to Russia,” Butorin said. “But she is a devoted daughter.” He believes his wife is imprisoned “because she is a journalist at Radio Free Europe and is an American citizen.”
Independent media and journalists in Russia have faced difficult working conditions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Authorities have passed a law criminalizing “spreading false information” about the Russian military. NOS correspondent Iris de Graaf was brought back from Russia by the broadcaster earlier this year, because the situation is no longer safe enough.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has previously labeled the allegations against Kurmasheva as “false” and said her detention is “further evidence that Russia is determined to suppress independent reporting.” The journalist’s employer previously called for her release.
2023-11-11 18:39:33
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