Bring Back Alsu Kurmasheva (with Jeffrey Gedmin and Pavel Butorin)

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.Show notes: Sign up for The Eastern Front‘s bi-weekly newsletter here and follow us on X here.

Om Podcasten

Ensuring the balance of power in Europe has, since the inception of our republic, been a core security interest for the US. Today, and for the entire post-Cold War period, the challenges to the European peace have emerged along the line running roughly from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This is what we call the Eastern Front. Our goal in this podcast is to better inform the American people about what’s going on there. Join us, Iulia Joja and Dalibor Rohac every week on in our discussions on what’s next for “The Eastern Front.”