A Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) was arrested in Russia and charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent,” her company announced Thursday.
Alsu Kurmasheva, editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, is the second American journalist to be detained in Russia this year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March for alleged espionage.
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to Protect Journalists (CPJ) classified the allegations against Kurmasheva as “false” and demanded that they be withdrawn and the journalist released.
Tatar-Inform also said that the Authorities accused the journalist of collecting information about Russia’s military activities “in order to pass information to foreign sources”, namely about university professors mobilized in the Russian army.
Alsu Kurmasheva, who is being held in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, is charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent” as a person collecting information and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
#Russia: We are concerned about the detention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva for apparently failing to register as a “foreign agent” and call for her immediate and unconditional release. Journalists must be able to do their crucial work without pressure, intimidation and reprisals. pic.twitter.com/3YjbCZkdbo
– UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) October 19, 2023
“Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife and mother of two children,” said RFE/RL Director Jeffrey Gedmin. “If you must be released so that she can return to her family immediately.”
The United States believes that the detention of a Russian-American journalist by Russian authorities is a new case of that country’s “hostility” toward American citizens. and criticized that Moscow had not yet informed Washington of this arrest.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. government is monitoring the case.
“We have not yet been officially notified (of the arrest) by the Russian government, but it is a case we have been following since they confiscated his passport in May and prevented him from leaving the country,” Miller told a news conference . conference.
The US embassy in Moscow said it was aware of reports of Kurmasheva’s capture.
According to RFE/RL, the journalist was initially arrested at Kazan International Airport on June 2 after traveling to Russia due to a family emergency.
Authorities at the airport confiscated the journalist’s Russian and American passports, and she was fined for failing to register her American passport with Russian authorities.
Kurmasheva was waiting for her documents to be returned when the accusation was made against her on Wednesday, RFE/RL reported.
“At that point it was clear they had nothing against her, so maybe it was a form of intimidation. And then it took three months for them to decide how to organize the case against her,” said Galina Arapova. of the Center for the Defense of Social Communications of Russia.
RFE/RL was instructed by Russian authorities in 2017 to register as a foreign agent.
Alsu Kurmasheva reported on ethnic minority communities in the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia.
Several analysts indicate that Moscow may be using captured Americans as a bargaining chip after the increase in US-Russian tensions with the invasion of Ukraine.
In recent years, at least two U.S. citizens have been arrested in Russia and exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the U.S., including basketball star Brittney Griner.
“Journalism is not a crime and Alsosu’s arrest is further evidence of Russia’s determination to suppress independent information,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ coordinator for Europe and Asia.
Gershkovich has appeared in court several times since his arrest and has appealed for his release several times without success.
Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that Gershkovich “acted in accordance with instructions from the American side and collected information constituting 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 allegations and the US government stated that he was wrongfully detained.
Source: DN
