Alsu Kurmasheva, 2024 winner
For decades, the Russian government has targeted journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an effort to silence the truth. And, since the 2022 Russian invasion in Ukraine, the Kremlin has taken extraordinary measures to ensure that domestic opposition to the war is silenced. So, when Alsu Kurmasheva, a veteran journalist with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service co-edited a collection of 40 stories of Russians who oppose the war on Ukraine, the Russian government’s censorship machine kicked into gear. In June 2023, after visiting her ailing mother in Kazan, Russia, Alsu was arrested by Russian security agents, accused of violating Russia’s infamous “foreign agent” and military censorship laws, and began her now months-long detention. She faces up to 15 years in prison.
So what has she done, to garner these charges?
Alsu has devoted her career to protecting the Tatar language and culture, like this Tatar language teaching portal she helped create in response to the Russian government’s restrictions on the teaching of the language. She also has sought to give voice to those the Kremlin would prefer to make voiceless, including the victims of domestic violence in Russia. This online report, the development of which she led, includes a series of stories and interviews mapping domestic violence across the country.
Alsu is highly regarded by her colleagues throughout the organization. And her courage in the face of Russian government intimidation and detention – directly tied to her work for RFE/RL – is an inspiration.
In letters written from her prison cell in Kazan, her determination to overcome the Putin regime’s efforts to crush her spirit is evident: “I will never come to terms with waking up here instead of next to my children and husband… After the first phase (coma) came the second (universal love). Now, I’m in the third phase – constructive anger and a desire to fight. I feel a surge of strength.”