Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, holding dual US and Russian citizenship, has been detained in Kazan, a city in Tatarstan, approximately 720 km east of Moscow.
This incident follows the arrest of fellow Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist Evan Gershkovich seven months prior
Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent,” which carries a potential five-year prison sentence. Normally based in Prague, where she serves in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s Tatar-Bashkir division, Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May due to a family emergency, as stated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a broadcaster funded by the US government.
On June 2, both her US and Russian passports were confiscated when she attempted to return to Prague. She was subsequently fined for not declaring her US passport. Despite awaiting the return of her documents, she was arrested. Kurmasheva frequently reports on issues concerning ethnic minority communities in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, regions in Russia’s Volga-Ural area where the majority of residents are Turkic-speaking Muslims.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s Tatar-Bashkir service became one of the first media outlets in Russia to be labeled a “foreign agent,” a term aimed at marginalizing and intimidating independent media
Currently, 244 journalists and media entities are on Russia‘s “foreign agents” list. Faced with this defamation, and hindered by Kremlin-imposed censorship, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s local services ceased operations in Russia in March 2022 and relocated to Prague and Riga.
Last March, Moscow-based Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the first US journalist detained in Russia since the Cold War, was arrested. He is accused of espionage and could face up to 20 years in prison, though no evidence supporting the charge has been presented. His case is shrouded in secrecy, and all requests for bail have been consistently denied.