Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva


Monday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy Thanks Biden For “Unwavering Support”


Map: Institute for the Study of War


UPDATE 0704 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted seven of eight Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians also fired an Kh-69 guided air missile.

All the weapons targeted the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has been condemned to 6 1/2 years in prison by a court in western Russia.

Kurmasheva, 47, was arrested in October while visiting family in Russia’s Tatarstan region. She was initially charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, and later with spreading false information about the Russian army.

Court records and officials confirmed that the sentence was imposed last Friday after a secret trial in the city of Kazan in Tatarstan.

Kurmasheva’s husband Pavel Butorin, who also works for RFE/RL, said she was punished because of a book that she edited, Saying No to War: 40 Stories of Russians Who Oppose the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

“My daughters and I know Alsu has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her home,” Butorin said.

The President and CEO of RFE/RL, Stephen Capus, criticized the rapid, closed-door trial as “a mockery of justice”:

The only just outcome is for Alsu to be immediately released from prison by her Russian captors.

It’s beyond time for this American citizen, our dear colleague, to be reunited with her loving family.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller added on Monday, “[Kurmasheva] is a dedicated journalist who is being targeted by Russian authorities for her uncompromising commitment to speaking the truth and her principled reporting.”

Kurmasheva was sentenced on the same day as US citizen Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned for 16 years on a charge of espionage in the city of Yekaterinberg.

Gershkovich was seized at the end of March 2023 by Russian security forces as he was speaking with residents of Yekaterinberg about Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Wagner Group mercenaries.