Russian Federation: Alsu Kurmasheva amongst journalists freed in prisoner swap

Photo: Pangea Graphics (RFE/RL)

‘The release of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva from Russian prison comes with great joy and long overdue relief, yet she should have never been imprisoned. Kurmasheva and other foreign nationals, including US journalist Evan Gershkovich and Russian-British writer Vladimir Kara-Murza, were used as political pawns and paid a heavy price. As we celebrate their freedom, we remember all the writers still unjustly detained by the Russian authorities and call for their immediate and unconditional release’. Ma Thida, Chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.

02 August 2024 – PEN International welcomes the release of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was freed from Russian prison on 1 August as part of a prison exchange. Evan Gershkovich, a US reporter working with the Wall Street Journal, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British journalist, writer and political activist, were also released in the swap. PEN International urges the Russian authorities to free all writers and other creatives still detained in the Russian Federation and in Russian-occupied Crimea on fabricated grounds.

On 1 August, Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir Service, was released from prison in Kazan, Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, where she was serving a six-and-a-half-year prison term on trumped-up grounds for ‘spreading false information’ about the Russian military, allegedly in relation to a book condemning the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine. US reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison on bogus charges of espionage, and Russian-British writer and political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for ‘high treason’, were amongst 24 prisoners released under the deal.

The sentencing of Kurmasheva, Gershkovich, and Kara-Murza came in the wake of a sustained clampdown on dissenting voices in the Russian Federation, with anyone brave enough to pursue independent journalism or speak out against the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine at high risk of unfair detention, prosecution and imprisonment. According to the European Federation of Journalists, 59 journalists were still imprisoned in the Russian Federation and in Russian-occupied Crimea at the time of writing.

PEN International campaigned for the release of Kurmasheva and rejoices at the sight of her being reunited with her loved ones. PEN International once again urges the Russian authorities to end their relentless crackdown on dissent and to free all writers and other creatives held merely for peacefully expressing their views. These include theatre director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, who were sentenced in July 2024 by a military court in Moscow to six years in prison on trumped-up terrorism grounds, as well as citizen journalists and human rights defenders Iryna Danylovychv and Server Mustafayev – both from Russian-occupied Crimea and currently serving lengthy prison sentences on bogus grounds in the Russian Federation, in flagrant violation of international law – including human rights and humanitarian law.

Note to Editors:

 For further details contact Aurélia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region at PEN International: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org