Transcript
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The same day that a Russian court convicted a Wall Street Journal reporter of espionage - a case the U.S. calls a sham - another lengthy prison sentence was handed down for another American journalist, this time a woman who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. NPR's Michele Kelemen has her story.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Russian American, Alsu Kurmasheva, was visiting her mother in the region of Tatarstan when her legal troubles began over a year ago. For months, she was placed under house arrest and accused of failing to disclose her American citizenship. Her family thought she'd be able to pay a fine and leave Russia. But last October, her husband, Pavel Butorin, got a troubling message.
ALSU KURMASHEVA: (Speaking Russian).
PAVEL BUTORIN: "They're taking me away to the investigative committee. My lawyer has been informed." And that was it. That was the last direct communication from Alsu to me.
KELEMEN: And this week, he heard that she was tried in secret and sentenced to 6 1/2 years for spreading false information about Russia's war in Ukraine.
BUTORIN: Alsu did no such thing. She is imprisoned not because of what she did or did not do, but because of what she is and what she represents.
KELEMEN: Kurmasheva lives in Prague, where she's an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the U.S. Congress. She started as an on-air reporter in the Tatar language, so she's likely well-known in Russia's Tatarstan region. Her verdict was handed down the same day that Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was convicted of espionage.
But while the U.S. has declared that Gershkovich was wrongfully detained, it has not given Kurmasheva that same label. Pavel Butorin hopes that even without such a designation, his wife will be part of whatever prisoner swap the U.S. negotiates with Russia to bring Gershkovich and another American, Paul Whelan, home.
BUTORIN: I cannot rely on the Russian legal system for any justice. So we're counting on our government here in the United States to help us bring Alsu back home.
KELEMEN: Pavel Butorin was also born in Russia and came to the U.S. in the late 1990s to study at Ohio University. While he gave up his Russian passport, his wife kept both in order to visit her family. U.S. diplomats, though, haven't been able to see her.
BUTORIN: We are in this Kafkaesque situation where Alsu is imprisoned because of her being an American citizen, an American journalist. But when it's convenient for the Russian government, they don't recognize her American citizenship.
KELEMEN: We meet at the National Press Club in Washington, along with his two daughters, 16-year-old Bibi Butorin calls her mother a political prisoner and says the whole situation is unbelievable.
BIBI BUTORIN: We never thought that she would be so famous because of something like this. And it's also very unsettling because our mom is the last person in the world who deserves something like this. She's the most caring, kind person you will meet. She cares so much about other people, and she's always putting other people before herself.
KELEMEN: Her sister, Miriam, who's about to turn 13, says they often talked on the phone while their mother was under house arrest.
MIRIAM BUTORIN: It was like October, and I wanted to make hot chocolate, but I didn't know how to. So I called her, and it was the last time I talked to her.
KELEMEN: Her father says that while he and the girls appear resilient as they advocate on Alsu's behalf, they miss her and want her home. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF STORMZY SONG, "FIRE + WATER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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