Alsu Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be arrested and charged in Russia since the start of its war in Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/AP pic)
MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors were asking a court today to place Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in pre-trial detention, the court said, after her arrest on suspicion of breaking a law on “foreign agents”.
Kurmasheva is a Prague-based journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which is funded by the US Congress and designated by Russia as a “foreign agent”, meaning it gets foreign funding for activities deemed to be political.
She is accused of failing to register as such when she entered Russia on May 20 for a family emergency. She was detained as she waited for her return flight on June 2.
“This appears to be another case of the Russian government harassing US citizens,” state department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters yesterday.
Russian officials have yet to comment on the arrest.
Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be arrested and charged in Russia since the start of its war in Ukraine.
After Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March on spying charges, which he denies, almost all other US journalists left Russia. Washington has repeatedly urged other Americans to leave.
According to court documents, Kurmasheva was fined 10,000 roubles on Oct 11 for failing to register her US passport with Russian authorities.
On Oct 18, she was charged with failure to register as a foreign agent, an offence that carries up to five years in prison.
RFE/RL president Jeffrey Gedmin said Kurmasheva was a “highly respected colleague, devoted wife, and dedicated mother to two children” and called for her immediate release.
The term “foreign agent”, which has Cold War connotations of espionage, has been applied in Russia to organisations, journalists, rights activists, and even entertainers, and brings with it close government scrutiny and a mountain of red tape.
The Tatar-Inform news agency quoted investigators as saying Kurmasheva had been gathering information on military activity, including about university teachers who had been called up to the army.
Yesterday, it published a video showing her being escorted into a building by four masked men after her arrest.
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