A Russian court on Monday April 1 extended the detention of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until June 5, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist present at the hearing.
This reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a media outlet financed by the American Congress, was arrested last year for not having registered as a "foreign agent", a term imposed by Russian justice which imposes heavy administrative constraints on the persons or entities concerned. She faces up to five years in prison. According to her media, she is also accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army, punishable by fifteen years in prison.
At the hearing on Monday in Kazan, capital of the Republic of Tartastan, Ms. Kurmasheva appeared smiling, but complained about her conditions of detention due to the poor state of her cell.
“Political ploy”
“The accusations against Alsu are baseless. This is not a legal procedure, but a political ploy, and Alsu and his family are unjustifiably paying a terrible price,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus denounced in a message, quoted by the AFP.
The journalist, who usually lives in Prague with her husband and two teenage daughters, had gone to Russia to visit her sick mother on May 20 but was unable to leave after her American and Russian passports were confiscated. .
Alsu Kurmasheva has been one of the pillars of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty since 1998. She collaborated on the Russian, Tatar and Bashkir language versions of this publication, where she dealt with social subjects as well as the governance of Tatarstan, one of the most corrupt and authoritarian regions in Russia.
According to Russian media, the accusation of disseminating “false information” brought against her is linked to her participation in the publication of a book of testimonies of Russians opposed to the offensive in Ukraine.
Russian campaign against independent media
Rights groups say Alsu Kurmasheva's detention is a new step in Russia's campaign against independent media, which has intensified since Russia's offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Washington also accuses Moscow of unjustified arrests of American citizens in order to exchange them for Russians detained in the West.
While many Russian activists and reporters have fled the country, others have been imprisoned. Several Americans are also detained, including journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested in March 2023, while reporting, by the Russian security services. The “Wall Street Journal” journalist has since been detained in Moscow on espionage charges that he rejects, as have Washington, his newspaper and those close to him. His pre-trial detention was extended at the end of March until June 30.
On March 29, US President Joe Biden said: “We will continue to denounce Russia’s outrageous attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips and take sanctions.” On the “painful anniversary” of Evan Gershkovich’s arrest, he promised to “work tirelessly to secure [his] release.”
