Prague, Nov 11: This wasn’t how Pavel Butorin expected to celebrate his anniversary this week, with his wife of 21 years in a Russian prison and barely any communication available.
Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva – who works as an editor for US government-funded Radio Free Europe – has been detained in Russia for almost a month and charged with failing to self-register as a “foreign agent.”
“Alsu should be celebrating this anniversary with me and our children at home, not in a Russian prison,” Butorin told The Associated Press in an interview in Prague on Friday.
“We want her back. Alsu must be released as soon as possible,” he said, visibly shaken.
Alsu Kurmasheva was detained on Oct 18, becoming the second US journalist detained in Russia this year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in March. She is being held in a detention centre, awaiting a trial that could sentence her to up to five years in prison.
Her ordeal began in May when she decided to travel to Russia’s Tatarstan to see her ailing, elderly mother for what was supposed to be a short trip. On June 2, she was about to board a return plane for home at Kazan International Airport when she was temporarily detained, both her passports and phone seized and fined for failing to register her US passport with Russian authorities.
“But before Alsu was able to pay the fine that was eventually issued, she was charged with a much more serious offence, and that is failure to register as a foreign agent,” Butorin said.
The state-run news website Tatar-Inform said Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent” and was collecting information on Russian military activities “in order to transmit information to foreign sources.” (AP)
