Freed American says she’s ‘finally being treated as a human being’ after Russian detention

(CNN) — Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva said she’s “finally being treated as a human being” following her release from Russian detention in a historic prisoner exchange between Washington and the Kremlin last week.

“I’ve been waking up from that nightmare,” Kurmasheva told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” in her first television interview since her release. “I had a feeling I fell asleep 10 months ago, and now I’m getting out of it.”

Kurmasheva and fellow freed Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were reunited with their families in an emotional scene at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland last week. Kurmasheva rushed into the arms of her husband and daughters on the tarmac after greeting Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

The US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist had been detained in October 2023 and found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army – charges her family and employer deny.

Kurmasheva and her husband, Pavel Butorin, have two daughters, including one who turned 13 just minutes after reuniting with her mother.

Asked by Tapper what it was like to learn she would be released, Kurmasheva said she didn’t believe she was free until “the very end.”

“It wasn’t until I saw my family that I believed that I’m free. Or, I would say when I was on a US airplane that I really believed that something like magic I was hoping for months was happening,” she continued.

Pavel recounted similar uncertainty in the hours leading up to his wife’s homecoming.

“Many things came as a surprise on that day, even that phone call from the president’s office,” Pavel said. “It came as a total surprise, and we were so happy to hear Alsu’s voice finally after so many months of no communication with her.”

‘There is always hope’

Recounting her release, Kurmasheva said she wasn’t told where she was being taken when removed from her prison cell in the Russian city of Kazan.

Aboard a bus in Moscow, Kurmasheva said, “I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Then I saw that bus of other prisoners — even then, you can never know for 100% that it’s going to happen,” she added. “So, there was hope, as there is a belief that there is always hope, but you should be ready for anything.”

Kurmasheva said that while aboard the bus she recognized Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter wrongfully detained by Russian authorities on espionage charges, though the two weren’t allowed to speak.

“We just greeted each other, and we recognized each other,” Kurmasheva said. “We haven’t met, but we knew each other by the photos. And the first time we talked, it was on the US plane where we took off from Ankara.”

Kurmasheva is not the only RFE/RL reporter who has been held in Russian captivity. Vladyslav Yesypenko, a journalist for the outlet’s Ukrainian Service, was detained in Russia-occupied Crimea on March 10, 2021; Ihar Losik, a journalist for the publication’s Belarus Service, was detained in Minsk on June 25, 2020; and Andrey Kuznechyk, also from the Belarus Service, was detained in Minsk on November 25, 2021.

“Their nightmare will be over at some point because no family should have to go through this nightmare, especially journalists,” Pavel said of Kurmasheva’s imprisoned colleagues.

“Journalism is not a crime. They’ve done nothing wrong, we know that,” he added. “Alsu is not a criminal, she’s done nothing wrong, the world knows she is not a criminal, and we’ll get them out, we’ll get her colleagues out.”

Hostage affairs official: Biden admin has made ‘hard decisions’

The sweeping deal involved 24 detainees in total and was the result of years of complicated behind-the-scenes negotiations involving the US, Russia, Belarus and Germany, ultimately leading Berlin to agree to Moscow’s key demand – releasing convicted Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov.

The top US hostage affairs official addressed criticism that Russia may be more likely to take US hostages for leverage if the White House continues to approve prisoner swaps, telling Tapper earlier in the program that the Biden administration had to assume some risk in order to bring the Americans hostages home.

“You always assume a risk in these situations, and the president has been willing to make these hard decisions,” Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens said.

Carstens, who was also involved in the high-profile releases of former Marine Trevor Reed and WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian detention, has served as the US’ top hostage negotiator since 2020. The diplomat told Tapper that he once had 54 hostage cases that are “now down to just over 20.”

“So we’ve made hard changes. We’ve traded some bad people to get good people, innocent people back,” Carstens said.

“And you would think that my numbers would be skyrocketing up and yet they’re not. They’re going in the opposite direction. So the math proves that assertion to be wrong,” he continued. “When we make these hard decisions and the president makes the tough call to send someone back in a trade like this, our numbers are actually going down.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested on Fox News on Sunday that the deal has increased Putin’s leverage on the West, saying there is a “cycle” that incentivizes the Kremlin to detain Americans on “trumped up charges” so they can exchange them for “Russian spies and killers.” The South Carolina Republican said that the “cycle needs to stop.”

Asked Monday whether President Joe Biden plans to contact the family of Marc Fogel, a US teacher in Russian prison who was not included in the swap, Carstens said that he can’t speak for Biden and has called on the Russians to release Fogel on humanitarian grounds.

Though Fogel has not been designated as “wrongfully detained” by the Biden administration, the US has brought back people that have not had the designation before, Carstens explained.

“Just because someone’s not necessarily designated wrongful doesn’t mean that we’re not also trying to work behind the scenes to bring them home as well,” he said.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.

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