Press freedom groups have renewed their calls for Russia to release Alsu Kurmasheva, as the RFE/RL journalist spent her 100th day in a Russian jail on January 25.
“Russian authorities must immediately” free Kurmasheva, the Committee To Protect Journalists said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Kurmasheva “must be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Reporters Without Borders.
Both groups said they were urging U.S. authorities to designate Kurmasheva as “wrongfully detained,” as they have other U.S. citizens held in Russia.
Asked at a January 24 briefing whether the State Department was closer to making the designation, spokesman Vedant Patel said: "I have no updates to offer on any specific designation, but we have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.”
“We remain incredibly concerned about the extension of her pretrial detention,” he said. “I can also note that our request to visit her was denied on December 20. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow continues to seek appropriate consular access."
The designation would raise the profile of the case against Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, effectively labeling it 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."
“We hope the U.S. State Department will quickly designate Alsu as ‘wrongfully detained,’” acting RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said in a statement.
"Even one day unjustly behind bars is a tragedy, but a U.S. citizen wrongfully held in a Russian prison for 100 days is outrageous."
Capus called for Russia to release Kurmasheva, noting that she is “a wife, mother, and beloved member of this proud institution.”
SEE ALSO: 'It's All Becoming Less Bearable': RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva Marks 100 Days In Russian CustodyKurmasheva, who has worked for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir service for some 25 years, left Prague in mid-May because of a family emergency in her native Tatarstan, one of Russia's many republics.
She was briefly detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2, 2023, 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 ($110) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities.
Unable to leave Russia without her travel documents, Kurmasheva was detained again on October 18 and this time charged with failing to ask the Russian government to register her as a "foreign agent." Two months later, she was charged with spreading falsehoods about the Russian military.
SEE ALSO: How The Russian State Ramped Up The Suppression Of Dissent In 2023: 'It Worked In The Soviet Union, And It Works Now'Kurmasheva recently wrote from her prison cell in the Russian city of Kazan that her detention was “becoming slowly but surely less bearable."
The "foreign agent" charge carries a maximum prison term of five years, while the second charge is punishable by up to 10 years. Kurmasheva and RFE/RL deny the allegations and say Moscow is punishing her for her journalistic work.
Many critics and rights group say the so-called foreign agent law is used by the Kremlin to crack down on any dissent.
Moscow has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that there had been "dialogue" between U.S. and Russian officials over the release of Gershkovich and Whelan. The two Americans are being held on espionage charges that they deny.
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.