Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva Alsu Kurmasheva has been jailed for six-and-a-half years by a court in the central city of Kazan on charges of spreading false information about the Russian army.
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said she was arrested in Russia in October 2023 for failing to register as a foreign agent.
Kurmasheva’s family, her employer and the U.S. government have rejected the charges against her and have called for her release.
She was sentenced on Friday, according to court officials_ the same day that another US journalist Evan Gershkovich was jailed for 16 years on spying charges.
Ms Kurmasheva denies any wrongdoing, and Stephen Capus, RFE/RL president and CEO, told the AP that her conviction was “a mockery of justice”.
“It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Mr Capus added.
Speaking to journalists when her custody was extended in May, Ms Kurmasheva,47, said she had not spoken to her two daughters since her arrest, adding that her health was deteriorating.
She holds both US and Russian citizenship and works for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service. She has often reported on issues facing ethnic minorities in central Russia.
According to RFE/RL, she traveled to Kazan in late May 2023 for a family emergency. She was detained while waiting for her return flight and her Russian and American passports were confiscated. In Russia it is illegal to fail to declare a US passport.
She was fined, before being arrested months later on ‘foreign agent’ charge. In December, while in custody, she was charged with spreading false information.
In 2022, she edited a book called Saying No to War, containing interviews with and stories from Russians opposed to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Independent Russian media organizations and press freedom groups say repressive laws are routinely used by Russian authorities to intimidate journalists and smother independent reporting.
The situation has deteriorated since the invasion of Ukraine, with the “false information” charge commonly used to eliminate criticism of the war_ a law that passed shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said back then that it was “urgently needed because of the absolutely unprecedented information war waged against our country”.
Russia has been accused of locking up US citizens to use as bartering chips to secure the release of Kremlin allies imprisoned abroad.
Mr Gershkovich’s sentencing on Friday raised speculation of a possible swap with Russian prisoners held in foreign jails.
