The Kremlin is not monitoring the fate of the detained journalist with US citizenship

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is not following the case of the editor of the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty (recognized as a foreign agent), Alsu Kurmasheva. The journalist, who has US and Russian citizenship, was detained for failing to identify herself as a foreign agent.

“As for the representative you mentioned, we, unfortunately, are not aware, we are not following this at all,” Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing.

Alsou Kurmasheva has American and Russian citizenship. She lives in Prague with her husband and children. The journalist returned to Russia in May for family reasons.

According to Radio Liberty, the journalist was first detained at Kazan airport on June 2, when she was about to leave the country. As the publication reported, Alsou Kurmasheva’s American and Russian passports were confiscated and then fined because she did not notify the Russian authorities about her second citizenship.

Alsou Kurmasheva was detained on October 18. She is a suspect under the article on failure to fulfill the duties of a foreign agent (Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

According to this article, the journalist had to voluntarily register as a “foreign agent” because, according to the investigation, she collected information in the field of military-technical activities of Russia. According to “Tatar-Inform”the investigation believes that the journalist received information about the mobilized teachers of the Tatarstan university in order to use this information in preparing “alternative analytical materials” for “conducting information campaigns discrediting Russia.”

Under this article, Alsou Kurmasheva faces up to five years in prison. The investigation requested the arrest of the journalist for 1.5 months. However, the court decided to extend her detention by 72 hours, until October 23.

According to Tatar-Inform, the journalist may also face claims for publishing a book that portrays Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in a negative light.

Read more in the material “Detention instead of a passport”.

Anastasia Larina