Radio Liberty journalist Alsa Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years
The Supreme Court of Tatarstan found Alsa Kurmasheva, a journalist of the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty, guilty of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army and sentenced her to 6.5 years in prison.
In October 2023, Kurmasheva was charged under “foreign agent” Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Evasion of duties provided for by the legislation on foreign agents”). The journalist lived in Prague and flew to Russia on personal matters. She was detained when she tried to return to the Czech Republic. While already in pre-trial detention, she became a defendant in a new criminal case - under the article on “fakes”. The reason for his excitement was Kurmasheva’s book, which she published in November 2022. It contains 40 stories of Russians opposing the war in Ukraine.
The journalist specializes in the problems of ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation; she was recognized as a political prisoner. She has US and Russian citizenship.
