A Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was detained in Russia and accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent,” her company revealed Thursday.
Alsou Kurmasheva, editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is the second American journalist detained in Russia this year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested for alleged espionage in March.
Kurmasheva, editor of RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, is in a temporary detention center, said Tatar-Inform, a state news agency in the republic of Tatarstan.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called the accusations against Kurmasheva “false” and demanded that they be dropped and the journalist be released.
Tatar-Inform also stated that the authorities accused the journalist of collecting information about Russia’s military activities “to transmit information to foreign sources”, that is, about university professors mobilized in the Russian army.
Detained in Kazan, capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, Alsou Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent” as a person who gathers information and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
“Alsu is a highly respected colleague, a devoted wife and mother of two children,” said RFE/RL editor Jeffrey Gedmin. “Alsu needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately.”
The United States considers that the detention of a Russian-American journalist by Russian authorities is a new case of “hostility” by that country towards American citizens, and criticized that Moscow has not yet notified Washington of this detention.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US government is following the case.
“We have not yet been officially notified (of the arrest) by the Russian government, but it is a case that we have been following since they took his passport in May, prohibiting him from leaving the country,” Miller said at a press conference. conference.
The US embassy in Moscow said it was aware of reports of Kursmasheva’s capture.
The journalist was initially detained at Kazan International Airport on June 2, after traveling to Russia for a family emergency, according to RFE/RL.
Airport authorities confiscated the journalist’s Russian and US passports and fined her for failing to register her US passport with Russian authorities.
Kurmasheva was waiting for the return of her documents when the accusation was made on Wednesday, RFE/RL reported.
“At that time it was clear that they had nothing against her, so maybe it was a form of intimidation. And after that it took them three months to decide how they were going to organize the case against her,” Galina Arapova said. of the Center for the Defense of Social Communication of Russia.
Russian authorities ordered RFE/RL to register as a foreign agent in 2017.
Alsosu Kurmasheva reported on ethnic minority communities in the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia.
Several analysts indicate that Moscow may be using imprisoned Americans as bargaining chips, following increased tensions between the United States and Russia with the invasion of Ukraine.
In recent years, at least two American citizens have been arrested in Russia and exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the United States, including basketball star Brittney Griner.
“Journalism is not a crime, and Alsosu’s arrest is further proof that Russia is determined to suppress independent reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Asia coordinator.
Gershkovich has appeared in court several times since his arrest and has unsuccessfully appealed several times for his release.
Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that Gershkovich “acted on instructions from the American side, collected information that constituted state secrets about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
The journalist and the Wall Street Journal deny the accusations and the US government declared that he was unjustly detained.
Source: TSF
