Russia Sentences Russian American Journalist to 6.5 Years in Penal Colony

Russia has sentenced Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to 6 1/2 years in a medium-security penal colony on Monday after she was convicted of "spreading false information" about the Kremlin army.

Kurmasheva, who holds U.S. and Russian citizenship and lives in Prague, was convicted on Friday, according to the website of the Supreme Court of Tatarstan in Kazan. Court spokesperson Natalya Loseva confirmed Kurmasheva's conviction and sentence to the AP, as the case is "classified as secret."

Newsweek reached out to the court via email for comment on Monday.

Kurmasheva, a 47-year-old editor for U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, was detained in October and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military.

She was later charged with "spreading false information" pertaining to the Russian military under legislation that criminalizes any public expression against the ongoing war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Her charges stem from a book titled No to War, which documented short stories of Russians opposed to the Ukraine conflict, AP cited Kurmasheva's husband, Pavel Butorin, who vehemently denies the charges against his wife.

"My daughters and I know Alsu has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her home," Butorin said on Monday in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Kurmasheva's conviction came on the same day Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years on espionage charges. Gershkovich, 32, was arrested March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.

Russian authorities alleged that he was gathering secret information for the U.S., but that claim has been rejected by America.

He is the first American journalist arrested on espionage charges, which Gershkovich has also denied, since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, according to the AP.

Both cases have since drawn international condemnation, with U.S. officials labeling them as politically motivated, as they mark a crackdown on free speech amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

"This is a mockery of justice," RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus told AP, calling for Kurmasheva's immediate release. "It's beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family."

Reporters Without Borders told AP that Kurmasheva's conviction "illustrates the unprecedented level of despotism permeating a Russian judiciary that takes orders from the Kremlin," adding that it aims to intimidate journalists and exert pressure on the U.S.

The list of Americans getting arrested in Russia continues to grow amid escalating tensions over the Ukraine war, with nine U.S. citizens known to be detained there, AP reports.

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