Silencing the Press: The Case of Alsu Kurmasheva and the Growing Threat of ‘Foreign Agent’ Laws

Alsu Kurmasheva was a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ( RFE /RL) She was arrested in 2023 while visiting her sick mother in Russia .

She was accused of failing to declare herself a “foreign agent,” and later convicted for “spreading false information” about Russia ’s military.

Kurasheva spent nine months in detention, many of them in isolation, before being released in a prisoner swap.

Russia 's foreign agent laws are being weaponized by autocratic regimes to silence dissent, Thomson Reuters Foundation's Antonio Zappulla says.

The alarming trend is the speed in which similar laws being proposed and enacted in other countries, he says.

Russia , Hungary , Nicaragua , Venezuela , Georgia , and Paraguay have drafted bills or proposed new legislation that mirrors elements of Russia ’s laws in recent years .