‘I’m Finally In Good Hands’: Freed RFE/RL Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva On Life After Russian Prison

By Mike Eckel and Austin Malloy (Eckel is a Fletcher alum and Senior News Correspondent)

Alsu Kurmasheva, an RFE/RL journalist and mother of two, was reunited with her family near Washington, D.C., after she was freed in a historic prisoner swap following nine months in Russian detention. She had been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on a charge of spreading falsehoods about the Russian military, a charge rejected by her employer. Joined by her husband, Pavel Butorin, Kurmasheva, 47, spoke with RFE/RL on August 5 from Texas about how she is adjusting to freedom after her release from a Russian prison.

(This post is republished from RFERL.)