In May 2023, Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), traveled to Russia to visit her ailing mother. While awaiting her flight back to the US in June, she was detained by Russian authorities and subsequently charged for failing to register as a “foreign agent.” If convicted, she faces up to five years in a Russian prison. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Jeffrey Gedmin, acting president of RFE/RL, and Pavel Butorin, Kurmasheva’s husband and director of Current Time TV at RFE/RL. Gedmin and Butorin provide an update on Kurmasheva’s situation, discuss their ongoing collaboration with the US State Department to bring her home, and shed light on the growing threats that journalists face in Russia and other authoritarian nations.

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