After more than nine months in prison, American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva has been released as part of a large-scale prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia. The deal included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained by the Kremlin for 16 months.

RFE/RL President & CEO Stephen Capus said: “We welcome news of Alsu’s release and are grateful to the American government and all who worked tirelessly to end her unjust treatment by Russia.  

Alsu was targetted because she was an American journalist who was simply trying to take care of a family member inside Russia. She did nothing wrong and certainly did not deserve the unjust treatment and forced separation from her loving family members and colleagues.  

Alsu’s release makes us even more determined to secure the freedom of three other RFE/RL journalists, cruelly imprisoned in Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea. We will not rest until all our unjustly detained journalists are home safe. Journalism is not a crime.  

Welcome home, Alsu.” 

Pavel Butorin, Alsu’s husband and Director of RFE/RL’s Current Time television, said: “Today, my daughters and I are witnessing a historic act of resolve and compassion by the U.S. government and its allies, demonstrating that the free world values human life and family above all else, even when it means exchanging real criminals and spies to save wrongfully detained Americans. 

After over a year of separation and more than nine months of brutal detention, Alsu will finally be free. Thanks to the unwavering efforts of the U.S. government and our tireless advocacy work, she will soon reunite with her family. 

For more than nine months, Alsu was denied basic human dignity. She was locked up in horrific prison conditions, denied phone calls with her children or U.S. consular visits, and deprived of proper medical care. She was convicted in a secret trial for a crime she did not commit, held in jail solely because she is an American and an American journalist.” 

Alsu Kurmasheva is a journalist with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service who was detained in Kazan, Russia, on October 18, 2023. Alsu holds U.S. and Russian citizenship and lives in Prague, Czech Republic, with her husband and two daughters. 

Alsu travelled to Russia on May 20, 2023, to care for her elderly, ailing mother. She was temporarily detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2, 2023. Authorities at Kazan airport confiscated her US and Russian passports, preventing her from leaving the country. She was subsequently fined 10,000 rubles (US$103) for failure to register her US passport with Russian authorities.  

Before she could pay this fine, she was detained again on October 18, 2023, for failing to declare herself a “foreign agent.” On December 11, 2023, Russian authorities launched a third investigation against Alsu for “spreading false information” about Russia’s military.   

Following a rapid and secret trial, Kurmasheva was convicted of “spreading false information” about Russia’s military on July 19, 2024, and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.   

​Image: RFE/RL