On October 31, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan upheld the decision of the lower court and remanded Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in custody until December 5. The woman has dual citizenship – Russian and American. She is charged under Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Evasion of duties stipulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation on foreign agents”) – for failing to register as a foreign agent.
Alsu Kurmasheva lives with her husband and two children in Prague. In May, she came to Russia on family matters. On June 2, while she was waiting for a flight to the Czech Republic, she was detained at the Kazan airport, and her American and Russian passports were confiscated. The Kazan Magistrates’ Court fined her for failing to notify the Russian authorities of her second citizenship.
On October 18, she was detained again. On the 26th, she was charged with a new offense under Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia, which states “failure to fulfill the obligation established by law to submit to the authorized body the documents required for inclusion in the register of foreign agents.” Part 3 of this article concerns persons “carrying out targeted collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of the Russian Federation, which, if received by foreign sources, can be used against the security of the Russian Federation.” The punishment under this article ranges from a fine of 300 thousand rubles to imprisonment for 5 years.
The court rejected the lawyer’s motion for a preventive measure not related to imprisonment and left her in custody until December 5. The hearing was held behind closed doors, with Alsu Kurmasheva participating via video link from the pretrial detention center.
As noted by the RFE/RL media corporation, this is the first criminal case under this article in Russia that has been opened against a journalist.
Alsu Kurmasheva graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Kazan University and New York University in Prague with a degree in Business Administration. Since 1998, she has been collaborating with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is the editor of the Russian-language Internet platform Idel.Realii, which is included in the register of foreign agents. She writes about ethnic and religious minorities, including the Crimean and Volga Tatars. She covered social problems in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In June 2014, she published an interview with the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev, in which he spoke out against Crimea joining Russia. In 2022, with the participation of Alsu Kurmasheva, the publication Idel.Realii released the book No to War about residents of the Volga region who oppose the war in Ukraine. Representatives of the American authorities, the European Union, and non-governmental organizations condemned the arrest of the journalist and demanded her immediate release.
