Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for the Russian-American Radio Free Europe, was arrested in Russia.

Two American reporters were arrested in Russia this year. Following Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested in the Russian city of Kazan, her employer Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Wednesday. She was charged with failing to identify herself as a “foreign agent.” The charge, for which she faces up to five years in prison, is specified in a press release from a private media outlet funded by the US Congress.

She usually lives in Prague with her husband and children, but the journalist had to travel to Russia for “family reasons” on May 20, and on June 2 she was temporarily arrested before flying to Kazan, RFE/RL explains. Her American and Russian passports were confiscated and she was unable to leave Russia before her indictment was finally announced on Wednesday.

“Experienced Journalist”

In a statement, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Kurmasheva was in a temporary detention center on Wednesday evening, according to the official Tatar-Inform news agency. Authorities accuse the journalist of “deliberately collecting military information about Russian activities via the Internet with the goal of transmitting this information to foreign sources” in September 2022. She is also accused of “leading campaigns for “information discrediting Russia.” “, Tatar-Inform clarifies.

CPJ calls on Russia to “immediately release” the journalist and “drop all charges against her.” “Journalism is not a crime, and Kurmasheva’s detention is further evidence of Russia’s determination to stifle independent journalism,” the organization said in a statement.

According to Radio Liberty, Alsou “Kumasheva is an experienced journalist who has long covered ethnic minorities in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, in the Volga and Ural regions of Russia.” “She must be released so she can immediately return to her family,” RFE/RL Interim President Jeffrey Gedmin said.

A representative of the NGO OVD-Info told CPJ that Ms. Kurmasheva will “very likely” soon be transferred to a pre-trial detention center. “She was arrested simply because she is an employee of Radio Liberty.” In fact, today every independent journalist in Russia risks doing the same thing,” said a colleague of Ms. Kurmasheva’s, quoted by CPJ on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Gershkovich is accused of espionage

In 2022, Tatarstan police raided the homes of seven RFE/RL journalists, according to CPJ. Kurmasheva is the second American journalist arrested in Russia in 2023, after Evan Gershkovich. This Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested by Russian security forces while reporting in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, on March 29. Since then he has been held in Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

Evan Gershkovich, who also formerly worked for Agence France-Presse in Moscow, is accused of espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison, but he denies the charges, as do Washington, his newspaper, his friends and his family. Russia never substantiated its accusations or publicly provided evidence, and the entire procedure was kept secret. His trial date has not yet been set.

Last week, a Moscow court rejected the journalist’s appeal to extend his detention. Several American citizens have been arrested and given harsh sentences in Russia in recent years, with Washington accusing Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians detained in the United States.