Russia extends detention of US journalist charged with espionage

Alsu Kurmasheva’s lawyers and family deny the accusations (Documents)

A Russian court on Thursday extended until April 5 the detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, whose employer said she faced 15 years in prison for censorship violations.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent.”

A court in the central city of Kazan said on Thursday it had ruled to keep her in pretrial detention until April 5.

In a closed hearing, Arsu Kurmasheva’s lawyers asked that she be placed under house arrest pending trial.

Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested in October and charged with spreading “disinformation” about Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, RFE/RL reported.

The “foreign agent” charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, while those convicted of spreading “false information” face up to 15 years in prison.

Her lawyers and family deny the accusations and call for her immediate release.

Russia has used sweeping censorship laws to ban criticism of its armed forces and independent reporting on its two-year military campaign.

Alsu Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague with her husband and two children, had her U.S. and Russian passports confiscated last June after traveling to Russia for a family emergency.

She was arrested in October while awaiting the return of her passport.

Days after ordering troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow jailed dozens of its most prominent critics and independent journalists for years under anti-dissent laws.

Alsu Kurmasheva is the second American journalist to be arrested in Russia in the past 12 months.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was also held in pretrial detention in Moscow on espionage charges, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

He also denied the accusations.

Russia has designated RFE/RL a “foreign agent,” a label with Soviet-era espionage connotations aimed at cutting off support.

In 2022, Alsu Kurmasheva edited a book called “Say No to War,” which included interviews and stories from Russians opposed to Moscow’s actions against Ukraine.

The U.S. State Department said last year that Arsu Kurmasheva’s arrest “appears to be another case of Russian government harassment of U.S. citizens.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)