Ukrainecast - The Americans behind Russian bars

The Americans behind Russian bars

Download The Americans behind Russian bars

While Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was being handed a 16 year jail term last week, another Russian court was sentencing Radio Free Europe editor Alsu Kurmasheva to 6.5 years in prison.

From marines to ballerinas and journalists, it’s believed that around thirty US citizens are currently incarcerated in Russian. So are they being arrested and how do the families of those detained manage, often without regular contact with their loved ones?

Ukrainecast speaks to Alsu Kurmasheva’s husband Pavel Butorin, professor Angela Stent from Georgetown University and the BBCs Steve Rosenberg.

Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko.

The producers were Arsenii Sokolov and Di Richardson. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Richard Fenton-Smith.

Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord

Published on Friday, 26th July 2024.

Available Podcasts from Ukrainecast

Subscribe to Ukrainecast

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the Ukrainecast webpage.