Imprisoned since October 18, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva is accused of not having registered as a “foreign agent” while she was traveling to Russia for a family emergency. She faces up to five years in prison. Her husband petitioned the US State Department to have her designated as “unjustly detained”, terminology that would make her the equivalent of a political hostage.
“The most egregious example of the misuse of Russian foreign agent legislation.” These are the words that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), based in the United States, described the arrest and subsequent conviction in October of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Since the law was passed in 2012, Russian authorities have labeled dozens of media outlets and around 100 journalists as foreign agents, according to CPJ, requiring them to regularly submit detailed reports on their activities.
But this already strict legal framework was considerably tightened on December 1, 2022. From now on, any person “under foreign influence” is considered “foreign agents”: a term vague enough to allow the arrest of anyone with links to outside Russia without even receiving financial or material assistance from a third organization or country.
Editor for the Tatar-Bashkir service of the US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) – Voice of America’s sister station – Alsu Kurmasheva resides in Prague with her husband and two teenage daughters . She went to Kazan, the capital of Russian Tatarstan, on May 20 to visit her sick mother. She was waiting for her return flight at Kazan airport on June 2 when her name rang out over the loudspeakers.
Authorities briefly took her into custody and confiscated her U.S. and Russian passports, preventing her from leaving the country. “At that moment, she was not suspicious, but they took her two passports and her phone,” says her husband, Pavel Butorin. “It was only days later that she was charged with failing to register her US passport, which is now a criminal offense in Russia.
Forced to stay in Kazan for the next four months, the journalist was finally fined 10,000 rubles (around $105) on October 11. A week later, she was still waiting to collect her travel documents on October 18 when “men in black” showed up at her door and took her away, her husband said.
Russian silence
It was not until the end of October that Alsu Kurmasheva was formally charged. But the offense upheld by Russian justice goes beyond an unregistered passport: the authorities accuse him of having failed to declare his status as a “foreign agent”. An offense for which she risks up to five years in prison.
In the process, a Russian court orders that Alsu Kurmasheva remains in detention until December 5. “The offense with which she is accused is not a violent crime. But the judge rejected the request for house arrest pending trial,” laments Pavel Butorin.
The decision to charge her under the expanded law on foreign agents is all the more surprising given that she was traveling not as a journalist, but for a family matter. “She was there in a personal capacity for what was supposed to be a short trip, two weeks at most, to help her mother,” says her husband.
The latter suspects the existence of an “obvious link” between the detention of his wife and her status as a journalist, in particular because Russia has designated the Tatar-Bashkir service, for which she works, as a “foreign agent” media organization. “. Furthermore, a large part of his career was dedicated to promoting the Tatar language and culture.
“She is not an agent of any government, and certainly not of the American government. She is a journalist. And we want her to be released as soon as possible,” assures Pavel Butorin, himself director of Current Time , RFE/RL’s 24-hour Russian-language television channel and digital news platform. In 2022, she also participated in the publication of a book entitled “Say no to war, 40 stories of Russians opposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, specifies the newspaper Le Monde.
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Pavel Butorin now hopes that the US State Department will designate her as “unjustly detained”, which would allow her case to be transferred to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA), thereby unlocking resources and expertise the United States. SPEHA notably participated in the release of basketball star Brittney Griner and Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who were detained by Russia last year.
A State Department spokesperson said it was “closely monitoring” Alsu Kurmasheva’s case and continued to press Moscow for consular access, but that “Russian authorities have not not yet responded to requests. In addition, American diplomacy explained that it had “not yet been officially notified by the Russian government of his detention”.
Asked whether Alsu Kurmasheva’s dual nationality complicated the situation, the spokesperson simply indicated that Russia was among the countries that could refuse to recognize the American citizenship of a person with dual nationality.
“Many countries do not recognize dual nationality, even if they do not expressly prohibit it,” writes a spokesperson reached by email. As a result, some “do not grant access to (…) American nationals in detention if they are also nationals of the country where they are detained”.
“Icy” and “overcrowded” prison
Since Russia’s foreign agents law came into force, Moscow has used it to punish government critics, including civil society groups, human rights NGOs, media outlets and activists. Russia has also been accused of detaining Americans to use them as bargaining chips against Russians detained by the United States: the freedom of Britney Griner was thus negotiated in exchange for that of the famous arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
Read alsoHow Moscow uses the status of “foreign agents” to harass opponents
For her part, Alsu Kurmasheva was able to consult a lawyer but was not allowed to receive visits or make telephone calls with her family. Her husband, however, says it is possible to exchange letters through the prison’s official online system, which is subject to censorship. “A paid system that only accepts Russian cards,” he adds.
Only some of the conditions of his detention are currently known. “His prison is probably overcrowded and it is certainly cold,” said Pavel Butorin, adding that it is currently close to 0°C in Kazan and that Alsu Kurmasheva is not authorized to receive additional blankets from his family or friends.
“We have been without Alsu for almost six months now. It is a very destabilizing situation.” Her daughters, “free-spirited and independent”, are also faced with the harsh reality of their mother’s situation. “It is difficult for them to understand that their mother is being held in a freezing cell in a Russian prison simply because she is a journalist.”
Nevertheless, the family seeks to cling to a better future. “We have Taylor Swift tickets for the Eras Tour, and we have a ticket with Alsu’s name on it,” says Pavel Butorin. “I want us to go together, as a family.”
An appeal to Turkey
“This appears to be another case of harassment of American citizens by the Russian government,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said in October of Alsu’s detention Kurmasheva.
Numerous US parliamentarians, the United Nations human rights office, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the president of the European Parliament are among the international bodies calling for his release.
Pavel Butorin would like to see Muslim nations join these calls because Alsu Kurmasheva claims her Tatar roots and belongs to a predominantly Muslim Turkic-speaking minority in Russia. “I would very much like Turkey to become more involved, particularly because of Alsu’s Turkish origins, and for other Muslim nations to put pressure on his release,” he explains.
Media organizations have joined calls for the journalist to be considered “unjustly detained”. “We urge the U.S. government to immediately designate the imprisonment of Alsu Kurmasheva as an unlawful and unjustified detention. The Biden administration is taking too long to make this important designation,” said the National Press Club, one of the largest professional organizations for journalists, in a press release published in early November.
Alsu Kurmasheva is the second American journalist currently detained by Russia, following the arrest of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich last March. It was the first time that Russia had accused an American journalist of espionage since the end of the Cold War. In April, Evan Gershkovich was labeled by the State Department as an “unjustly detained” U.S. citizen.