Top Czech Diplomat Uses UN Debate To Demand Moscow Free RFE/RL Journalist Kurmasheva

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky called on Moscow during a United Nations debate to release RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who has been held in Russian custody for almost five months on charges that she, her employer, and her supporters reject.

Speaking during an open debate at the UN Security Council in New York on March 13, Lipavsky began by talking about the need to promote a safe and supportive atmosphere for women, for advocates of human rights, activists, journalists, and advocates of gender equality.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky

He then criticized Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, saying it contradicted the UN's core principles by invading Ukraine and disrupting the entire security structure outlined in the UN charter.

"I would like to add that Czechia calls on Russia to immediately release Alsu Kurmasheva from detention," Lipavsky said, noting reforming the Security Council to add more countries could be could be a way to strengthen it.

Kurmasheva, a Prague-based journalist with RFE/RL who holds both U.S. and Russian citizenship, has been held in Russian custody since October 18, 2023, on a charge of violating the so-called foreign agent law.

Despite spending almost five months in custody, she has yet to be designated by the U.S. State Department as "wrongfully detained" as it has other U.S. citizens held in Russia.

The designation would raise the profile of the case against Kurmasheva, effectively labeling it as politically motivated. Two other U.S. citizens held by Russia, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, have been designated as wrongfully detained.

Kurmasheva, who has worked for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service for some 25 years, left the Czech capital in mid-May last year because of a family emergency in her native Tatarstan.

She was briefly detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at the Kazan airport, where both of her passports and phone were confiscated. After five months waiting for a decision in her case, Kurmasheva was fined 10,000 rubles ($109) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.

Unable to leave Russia without her travel documents, Kurmasheva was detained again in October and this time charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. Two months later, she was charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military.

If tried and convicted, Kurmasheva may face up to 10 years in prison.

Many critics and rights group say the so-called foreign agent law is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent.

Moscow also has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.

RFE/RL's jailed journalists (left to right): Alsu Kurmasheva, Ihar Losik, Andrey Kuznechyk, and Vladyslav Yesypenko

Kurmasheva is one of four RFE/RL journalists -- Andrey Kuznechyk, Ihar Losik, and Vladyslav Yesypenko are the other three -- currently imprisoned on charges related to their work. Rights groups and RFE/RL have called repeatedly for the release of all four, saying they have been wrongly detained.

Losik is a blogger and contributor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service who was convicted in December 2021 on several charges including the “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Kuznechyk, a web editor for RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was sentenced in June 2022 to six years in prison following a trial that lasted no more than a few hours. He was convicted of “creating or participating in an extremist organization.”

Yesypenko, a dual Ukrainian-Russian citizen who contributed to Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, was sentenced in February 2022 to six years in prison by a Russian judge in occupied Crimea after a closed-door trial. He was convicted of “possession and transport of explosives,” a charge he steadfastly denies.