Fayez Hoda, Pune
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison by a Russian court, according to a report released on Monday by the official news agency TASS. Kurmasheva became the second American journalist to be found guilty in Russia in recent months when the trial, which took place behind closed doors, found her guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military.
Kurmasheva was sentenced to 16 years in jail in Yekaterinburg on Friday, the same day Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was found guilty of espionage. Kurmasheva was given a harsher punishment. Both his publication and the United States have denounced his prosecution as a fraud.
It is unclear whether the Kremlin intends to use journalists as leverage in a prospective prisoner swap with the US in light of the simultaneous convictions of Kurmasheva and Gershkovich in quick, covert tribunals. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to respond when asked about this on Monday.
Working for the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Kurmasheva is based in Prague. In October 2023, she was arrested for reportedly neglecting to register as a foreign agent while visiting her mother in Russia. December saw the official filing of charges against her, which her employer and family vigorously contest.
RFE/RL CEO Stephen Capus referred to Kurmasheva’s conviction as “a mockery of justice” and asked for her instant release.
“It’s long overdue for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Capus stated, emphasizing that “the only fair resolution is for Russia to release Alsu from prison without delay.”
According to Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, she had visited her mother in Russia in May 2023 but was stopped at the airport on her way back to Prague in the early part of June. Her passports were seized, and she was fined and put under house arrest, which was subsequently made official. In December, she was charged. Like Gershkovich, who is the first American journalist to be arrested in Russia on espionage allegations since the Cold War, Butorin has pushed the US government to consider Kurmasheva illegally detained.