Russia continues its war against journalists

After months of complex and delicate negotiations, American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva landed in the United States on a plane carrying three Americans who had been released on August 1 in a historic prisoner swap with Russia.

Alsu was held hostage in the Russian city of Kazan for more than nine months and had an emotional reunion with her family on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews just minutes before her youngest daughter Miriam’s thirteenth birthday.

Alsu committed no crime and should never have been detained. As we breathe a sigh of relief for Alsu and her family, we continue the fight to secure the release of her three colleagues who remain behind bars, and stand in solidarity with all the journalists jailed by Russia and its allies as retaliation for their honest reporting.

A travesty of justice

Alsu is a journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a congressionally funded, editorially independent media organization that reports news in places where press freedom is threatened. Based in Prague, Alsu works for RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service, where he covers cultural and human rights issues affecting ethnic minority communities in Russia.

Alsu traveled to Russia in May 2023 to care for her elderly, ailing mother. She planned to stay there for only two weeks, but as she prepared to board the plane at Kazan airport, she was stopped and forced to surrender her American and Russian passports. Authorities accused her of not registering her U.S. passport and later gave her a small fine.

She basically spent the summer underground under house arrest in Kazan, willing to pay the fine and return to Prague. Before she could, masked Russian agents showed up at her mother’s door on October 18, 2023 and took Alsu away. They accused her of failing to register as a “foreign agent” and then “spreading false information” about the Russian military, under draconian laws that Russia uses to punish independent journalists.

Alsu spent nine months in appalling conditions, surviving the Russian winter in a cold, filthy prison cell and falling constantly ill. After a quick and secret trial, she was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on July 16, the same day she was convicted. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to sixteen years on espionage charges.

Alsu’s only crime was that he was an American journalist with a commitment to the truth.

Her forced separation from her loving family and colleagues was undeserved and cruel, and her treatment in prison was appalling. “I am finally in good hands,” Alsu told RFE/RL a few days after her release. “I am finally being treated like a human being after this horrible, horrible ordeal.”

As we celebrate Alsu’s release, we must remember that Russia’s broader crackdown on the free press continues unabated, supported by its allies. Three of Alsu’s colleagues remain wrongly detained in Russian-occupied Crimea and Belarus: Vladyslav Yesypenko, Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk.

As we welcome Alsu home, we strengthen our commitment to their freedom and will continue to work tirelessly until they return to their families.

The imprisonment of RFE/RL journalists is part of an insidious trend. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Russia kept twenty-two journalists behind bars in 2023 on charges ranging from criticizing the war in Ukraine to spreading “fake news.” Countless others have been forced to report from exile or stop practicing journalism entirely for their own safety.

‘My brain almost boiled’

Vladyslav (Vlad) Yesypenko, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service, was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Russian-occupied Crimea on March 10, 2021. Vlad, a Ukrainian citizen, left Crimea after Russia’s 2014 annexation but felt compelled to return periodically to report on social and environmental issues affecting the peninsula’s residents.

On February 16, 2022, a Russian-imposed court convicted Vlad of “possession and transportation of explosives,” a charge he steadfastly denies. Prosecutors have since admitted that a grenade “found” in Vlad’s vehicle did not have his fingerprints on it.

During his trial, Vlad said he was tortured with electric shocks to extract a false confession. Recalling the torture, he said: “My eyes ached and my brain was almost boiling. . . . I was willing to sign anything.” He is currently serving a five-year prison sentence, separated from his wife Kateryna and ten-year-old daughter Stefania, who have not seen him for more than three years.

The Russian allies are testing their playbook

Ihar Losik, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, was detained in Minsk on June 25, 2020, as part of mass arrests ahead of the August 2020 rigged elections in Belarus, which the Kremlin supported dictatorship of Aleksandr Lukashenko.

After a five-month closed-door trial, Ihar was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on unfounded charges, including ‘organizing mass riots’ and ‘incitement to hatred’. He was transferred to the infamous Navapolatsk forced labor colony.

Since his arrest, Ihar has suffered severe psychological and physical pressure, including beatings, prolonged solitary confinement and several grueling hunger strikes. He has been held incommunicado since February 2023, cut off from the outside world.

Ihar’s colleague Andrey Kuznechyk is being held in the same prison on equally unfounded charges, but they are not allowed to speak to each other. Andrey, an avid cyclist, was arrested in Minsk on November 25, 2021, while returning home from a cycling trip. The authorities ransacked his house and threw him in jail to serve two consecutive ten-day sentences for ‘hooliganism’.

That winter, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine with Lukashenko’s support, while Andrei remained in custody on unspecified charges. The charges remained unknown until May 2022, when Andrey was charged with “creating or participating in an extremist organization.”

On June 8, 2022, Andrey was sentenced to six years in prison after a closed-door trial that lasted no more than a few hours.

Andrey is an innocent father of two young children. Because of Lukashenko’s persecution, he is kept from them and the rest of his loving family.

Journalism is not a crime

These journalists were jailed not because of what they did (or, more accurately, didn’t do), but because of what they represent: a challenge to the false narratives spread by the Kremlin and its allies. And they are not alone: ​​arrests of journalists in Russia are at an all-time high.

Authoritarians like Putin and Lukashenko are trying to silence independent journalists who are committed to reporting the truth. Yet any attempt to silence members of the free press serves to underscore the importance of our mission.

RFE/RL remains committed to fighting for the truth and promoting democratic values ​​by providing accurate, uncensored news and open debate in countries where a free press is under threat and disinformation is rampant.

Every minute that Vladyslav, Ihar, Andrey and every other journalist imprisoned by the Kremlin and its allies are held behind bars is time stolen from their families. We will not stop fighting for their freedom until they – like Alsu – can finally hug their loved ones again.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.