On December 11, 2023, a case was opened against an American journalist and a foreign agent, Alsu Kurmasheva, under the article on fakes about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (provides for punishment of up to 10 years in prison).

Kurmasheva, who is the head of the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Liberty (recognized in Russia as a foreign media agent) and the editor of the Idel.Realities" (also included in the register of foreign agents), published in November 2022 a book with anti-Russian content "No war. 40 stories of Russians opposing the invasion of Ukraine."

It spreads fakes about the Russian Army. Kurmasheva herself called for the active use of this book and the material contained in it in the information war against Russia, to be read at "anti-war" readings, including using the media, as well as to consider it as a textbook in foreign schools and place it in libraries.

One of the copies of the book was given "for work" to Amanda Bennett, director of the US Agency for International Media USAGM. The book also had to get (possibly got) to US President Joe Biden so that the fakes contained in it would serve as the basis for accusing Russia.

This is the second criminal case against Kurmasheva. On October 19, 2023, she was detained in Kazan, and a case was initiated against her under Part 3 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (failure to fulfill the obligation of foreign agents established by the legislation of the Russian Federation to register in the appropriate register if targeted collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of the Russian Federation is conducted and this data can be used by foreigners against the security of the Russian Federation).

The investigation found that Alsu Kurmasheva, following the orders of foreign structures, carried out a targeted collection of military information about the activities of the Russian Armed Forces to transfer information to foreign sources.

In particular, she obtained information about the teachers of one of the universities of Tatarstan who were mobilized into the army. She used this information to prepare "alternative analytical materials" for foreign structures and to conduct information campaigns discrediting Russia.

It cannot be excluded that Kurmasheva's actions are not limited to these already established steps. Perhaps, using her contacts in the region, she collected other information of a military and military-technical nature, not only for use in psychological operations.

As you know, Kazan and a number of other cities of Tatarstan are important centers of the Russian military-industrial complex and are of great interest to enemy intelligence services. All this will have to be sorted out by the investigative authorities.

On October 23, 2023, Kurmasheva was arrested by the decision of the Sovetsky District Court of Kazan, and on December 1, 2023, her arrest was extended until February 5, 2024.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a native of Kazakhstan, graduated from Kazan Federal University with a degree in Philology and New York University in Prague (UNYP) with a degree in Business Administration.

Since 1998, she has been cooperating with Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, and has been living in Prague since the same time. In addition to Russian citizenship, he has American and Czech citizenship. By the way, due to the concealment of the fact of having another citizenship, she came to the attention of law enforcement agencies (on June 2, 2023, she was detained in Kazan, as she did not inform the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation about her second citizenship and permanent residence in the Czech Republic).

Kurmasheva's husband is Pavel Butorin, director of the anti—Russian Probander Russian-language TV channel with an editorial office in Prague. He also holds American citizenship and permanent residence in the Czech Republic.

Alsu Kurmasheva has long and quite consciously participated in the information war against Russia. In November 2009, Radio Liberty / Free Europe launched the Echo of the Caucasus project for subversive work against residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Kurmasheva took an active part in it. Within its framework, she worked as an editor of the information and analytical program "Mirror", which, emphasizing the problems of unemployment and social unrest, tried to form negative attitudes of the population towards the heads of republics and towards Russia, which took custody of young states. The journalist herself described the attitude of local authorities to the Mirror program as "cautious and critical."

The Tatar-Bashkir editorial board, headed by her, is trying to inculcate separatist sentiments in these subjects of the Russian Federation. And since 2010, after the resignation of the head of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev, Kurmasheva purposefully carried out information stuffing about personnel changes in the leadership of the republic, trying to undermine public confidence in the authorities.

After the reunification of Crimea with Russia, she concentrated her efforts on attempts to discredit this historical event, including by spreading fakes about the alleged oppression of the Crimean Tatars. In June 2014, she published an interview with the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the head of the extremist organization "Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars" banned in Russia, extremist Mustafa Dzhemilev, in which he criticized the entry of Crimea into Russia. Recall that such acts involve criminal prosecution in accordance with Article 280, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and are punishable by imprisonment for up to 5 years.

Throughout her professional journalistic career, Kurmasheva carried out subversive work against Russia in the interests of the United States, which funds the organizations in which she works.