Russia sentences American radio journalist to 6.5 years

Kurmasheva, 47, an editor with U.S. government-financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was convicted in a closed trial on Friday in Kazan, nearly 500 miles east of Moscow, the same day as Gershkovich’s conviction in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals. News of Kurmasheva’s conviction, however, emerged only Monday.

Kurmasheva was convicted under Russia’s wartime fake-news law, which bans the broadcasting or posting of any information about the war in Ukraine other than official propaganda. The law, adopted after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, effectively bars reporting on Russian atrocities in Ukraine, military setbacks, heavy military casualties, or criticism of the war.

Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen who was accredited as a journalist by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, was convicted Friday of spying in a closed trial described by American officials and his employers as a sham. He, the Wall Street Journal and the State Department strenuously denied the charges.

Russian officials have said that talks are underway with Washington about a potential prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich, but Moscow has stated repeatedly that a trade would be possible only after the conclusion of the trial. The unusually swift verdict in his case suggested potential developments in a trade. It was unclear whether Kurmasheva, too, has been the subject of such discussions.

Kurmasheva, who holds American and Russian passports, is a Prague-based editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She was detained in June 2023 after a trip home to Russia to visit her ailing mother. Both of her passports were confiscated.

Kurmasheva and her employer have denied any wrongdoing. After her detention in Kazan, she was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, a charge often leveled at independent journalists, activists, writers, politicians and others as part of President Vladimir Putin’s sweeping crackdown on dissent, which accelerated after his invasion of Ukraine.

In October, Russian prosecutors added charges of disseminating fake news about the Ukraine war. Because Kurmasheva’s trial was closed, no information was available about the actions for which she was prosecuted or the nature of the evidence, if any, against her.

Unlike Gershkovich, Kurmasheva has not been declared by the State Department to be wrongfully detained, for reasons that remain unclear. As with Gershkovich, the State Department has declared former marine and corporate security executive Paul Whelan to be wrongfully detained after he was convicted in 2020 of spying and sentenced to 16 years.

Putin hinted in February that he would be willing to swap Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of murder in Germany for assassinating former Chechen rebel commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin’s main park.

After Gershkovich’s conviction, President Biden released a statement that he was doing all he could to secure the safe release of Gershkovich, Whelan and “all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad.”

The State Department prioritizes Americans it has declared to have been wrongfully detained, which could reduce Kurmasheva’s chances of being included in exchange talks.

Until her arrest, Kurmasheva lived in Prague with her husband and two daughters.

In February, Russia designated RFE/RL an “undesirable organization,” which means that any Russian who cooperates with the media outlet could be jailed for up to five years.

Stephen Capus, president of RFE/RL, said in a statement on Monday that Kurmasheva’s conviction was “a mockery of justice” and called for her immediate release, according to the Associated Press.