Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has been in custody since Oct. 18. Kurmasheva, the second U.S. journalist to be held in Russia since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, is being held in pre-trial detention - so far scheduled to end on Feb. 5 - in her native Russian region of Tatarstan.
The husband of the RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was detained in Russia on October 18, has said she is a "political prisoner." Kurmasheva holds both Russian and U.S. citizenship. Her husband, Pavel Butorin, also works from the RFE/RL offices in Prague, where he is head of Current Time, a Russian-language TV and digital network led by RFE/RL in partnership with Voice of America.