It has been nine months since Russian authorities arrested my friend and former colleague Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen and a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir Service.
Formally, Alsu has been charged with violating Russia’s absurd and opaque foreign-agent law and its absolutely Kafkaesque and Orwellian prohibitions on telling the truth about Moscow’s brutal and genocidal war against Ukraine.
But in reality, Alsu has been imprisoned for the crime of being an American and the offense of being an honest journalist. And for this she faces 15 years in a Russian prison.
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore is joined by Alsu’s husband Pavel Butorin, director of Current Time television, and their daughter Bibi Butorin, to discuss her case and the efforts to free her.
SHOW NOTES
The clip opening the podcast is from U.S. President Joe Biden’s speech at the 2024 White House Correspondents Dinner on April 27, 2024. You can watch the speech in its entirety here and read a transcript here.
The clip opening the second-half of the podcast came from Pavel Butorin’s testimony before the the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on April 30, 2024. You can watch the hearing in its entirety here.
To stay informed about Alsu’s case, to help in efforts to free her, and to write letters of support, visit the RFE/RL advocacy page here. You can also follow the hashtag #FreeAlsu for news and information about Alsu’s case.
Pavel and Bibi Butorin’s interview on CNN with Jake Tapper can be accessed here. A feature on Alsu’s case and its impact on the the family on CBS Sunday Morning can be accessed here. And Pavel’s interview on Bloomberg can be accessed here.