A Campaign Builds to Label Radio Free Europe Journalist as Wrongfully Detained

Earlier this year, Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual Russian-U.S. citizen and journalist for U.S.-government funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, faced a difficult choice. She wanted to travel to the Russian city of Kazan to see her ailing mother. But her employer and the U.S. government had warned against travel to Russia, with the State Department saying that American citizens risked being singled out for arrest.

In May, she made the trip, leaving the Czech Republic, where she lives, on her U.S. passport and entering Russia using her Russian passport. In June, Russian authorities stopped her from flying home, accusing her of failing to properly declare her U.S. citizenship.