A Russian court has handed down a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence to Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist holding dual Russian-American citizenship, as reported by state news agency TASS on Monday.
According to CNN, the closed-door trial concluded with Kurmasheva being found guilty of disseminating false information regarding the Russian military.
Her conviction follows a recent pattern, with several US journalists facing similar charges in Russia.
The verdict was issued in Kazan on Friday, coinciding with the sentencing of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg.
Gershkovich received a 16-year sentence for espionage, a decision his newspaper and the US have condemned as fraudulent.
The simultaneous convictions of Kurmasheva and Gershkovich, both determined in swift, secretive proceedings, have sparked speculation about potential prisoner exchanges between Russia and the United States.
When questioned about this on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, “I have no answer to this question. I leave this question unanswered.”
Kurmasheva, a journalist based in Prague for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in October 2023 during a visit to her mother in Russia, allegedly for not registering as a foreign agent.
She was later accused of spreading false information in December, accusations that her family and employer contest.
RFE/RL CEO Stephen Capus denounced Kurmasheva’s conviction as “a mockery of justice,” calling for her immediate release. “It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family,” Capus stated, emphasizing that “the only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors.”
Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, expressed his dismay at the court’s decision, telling CNN, “My daughters and I know Alsu has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her home.”
Before the conviction, Butorin was optimistic about her return, even purchasing Taylor Swift tickets for August.
“Little did we know that she would be arrested and taken away from us,” he told CNN.
Kurmasheva had traveled to Russia in May 2023 to visit her mother but was detained at the airport while trying to return to Prague in early June. Following the confiscation of her passports, she faced fines and was placed under house arrest for several months before formal charges were brought in December.
Butorin has urged the US government to also recognize Kurmasheva as wrongfully detained, as it has with Gershkovich, the first American journalist charged with espionage in Russia since the Cold War.
