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A discussion with Alsu Kurmasheva about the high price journalists can pay for their dedication to their work. Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe, spent more than nine months in Russian prison. In May 2023, she traveled to Kazan to visit her sick mother, but the Russian authorities did not allow her to leave the country and return to Prague, where she has lived with her husband and two daughters since 1998. What followed was an indictment, long months in detention, and a six-and-a-half-year sentence for “spreading false information about the Russian military.” The United States government, Radio Free Europe, human rights organizations, and above all her family, tirelessly campaigned for her release. On August 1 of this year, after nine months in a cold prison cell, Alsu was finally freed thanks to a historic prisoner exchange between the West and Russia. The interview was conducted by Zuzana Tvarůžková.