Russia Sentences American-Russian Journalist in Absentia to Eight Years in Prison

A court in Moscow has sentenced Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and writer, to eight years in prison in absentia for allegedly disseminating 'false' information about the Russian army. The sentence against this Kremlin critic, who was born in Moscow and holds dual Russian-American citizenship, was issued on Monday, July 16. Gessen, who lived in Russia until 2013, when laws against the LGBTQ community were enacted, is a writer for The New Yorker and a columnist for The New York Times, currently residing in the United States. The Russian police placed her on the wanted list in December 2023. According to Radio Free Europe, the charges stem from Gessen's interview with Yuri Dud, a prominent Russian blogger, regarding alleged crimes committed by Russian soldiers against civilians in Ukraine. In this interview, which has been viewed over 6.5 million times on YouTube since September 2022, Gessen and Dud discussed the atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine, earlier that year. Ukrainian soldiers who retook Bucha from retreating Russian forces found at least 400 bodies of men, women, and children in the streets, homes, and mass graves, with signs of torture on some of the corpses. Russian officials have vehemently denied any responsibility for the massacre and have prosecuted individuals who have spoken about Bucha in Russia. This legal action is based on a Russian law enacted shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, which criminalizes any statements about the war that differ from the Kremlin's narrative. Russia claims that its forces are only targeting military objectives in Ukraine, not civilians. Since the invasion began in February 2022, Russia has severely suppressed dissent and targeted Americans as well. According to a legal group monitoring political arrests in Russia, there are currently 1,053 criminal cases in Russia against anti-war protesters. On July 27, Russia also began the closed trial of Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist and Wall Street Journal reporter who is in custody, having been arrested in March 2023 while reporting from Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage for the U.S. This journalist, the Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government have denied the charges, with Washington considering him one of the American citizens unlawfully imprisoned. Washington has labeled the arrests of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine also imprisoned in Russia, as 'illegal' and has stated its commitment to bringing them home. Alsu Kormashova, who worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir service for about 25 years, was also arrested last year upon returning to Kazan airport due to a family matter in her homeland of Tatarstan. If tried and convicted, Kormashova could face up to 10 years in prison.