A Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, her employer and a journalist watchdog group said on Wednesday.
RFE/RL acting president Jeffrey Gedmin said in a statement that Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the US Congress-funded outlet’s Tatar-Bashkir service, “needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately.”
In recent months, she is the second US journalist to be held by Russia.
A reporter for the Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich has been arrested since March, accused of spying.
Kurmasheva lives in Prague, Czech Republic, but entered Russia on May 20 for a family emergency, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.
She was temporarily detained at the Kazan airport on June 2 before her return flight, where both her US and Russian passports were confiscated and she was fined for failing to register her American passport with Russian authorities, according to RFE/RFL.
She was awaiting the return of her passports when the new charge was announced, the CPJ said, adding that if found guilty she faces up to five years in jail.
The organization said that it was “deeply concerned” by the charges.
Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, said that Russian authorities must “release her immediately and drop all charges against her.”
“Journalism is not a crime and Kurmasheva’s detention is yet more proof that Russia is determined to stifle independent reporting.”
