The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 13 other press freedom and freedom of expression groups on Tuesday in calling on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to declare Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen and an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), as “wrongfully detained” by the Russian government, a status that would unlock a broad U.S. government effort to free her.
Russian authorities detained Kurmasheva on October 18 in the western Russian city of Kazan and charged her with failure to register herself as a foreign agent. If found guilty, she faces up to five years in prison.
Read the full statement below.