Consider This from NPR - Eggs and Bananas: Life after a Russian prison

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

It's been more than three weeks since the U.S. and Russia completed the largest prisoner swap since the collapse of the Soviet Union.Speaking from the White House shortly after news broke that three American prisoners were headed home, President Biden described the release as an "incredible relief."Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was one of those prisoners, and she's sharing what life was like in a Russian prison and how she's adjusting to life at home. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On August 1st, shortly before midnight, a plane carrying three Americans landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Minutes later, two men and one woman walked down the stairs onto the tarmac, where they were greeted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Cheers for Americans who'd been held in Russian prisons, then freed in the largest post-Soviet era prisoner swap in history. Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and also Kormasheva, who ran from President Biden's embrace into the arms of her family. She's the mother to two teenage girls, her daughter Miriam, about to celebrate her 13th birthday. And here she runs to her family. She's the mother to two teenage girls, her daughter Miriam about to celebrate her 13th birthday. And here she runs to her children. Moments of joy and relief on a warm summer night after months or for some years of imprisonment in Vladimir Putin's Russia. For Kormasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe, the moments of joy have continued as she has readjusted to freedom.

Freedom, for example, to resume the family pastime of running. It was my first run along the National Mall in Washington. It felt wonderful. It's been three weeks only, or already, I don't know, but I'm still on my firsts, you know. I still enjoy my eggs and bananas for breakfast. I've been craving for eggs for 10 months when I was in jail. She'd been in jail since last fall, October 18th. There were so many little things she missed, so many things to readjust to this past month.

My first shower at home and my first night in bed, it felt incredible. I slept like a baby for a couple of nights and then I started waking up sometimes in a nightmare of living again what was happening to me. Kormasheva had traveled to Russia to care for her ailing mother. As she prepared to leave, she was arrested. She was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent under a Russian law that targets journalists. Ultimately, a Russian court sentenced her to six and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army. Consider this. After months of imprisonment in Russia, Alsu Kormasheva is now free. Coming up, we get a glimpse into her time in a Russian prison and hear how she's adjusting

to life at home. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Consider This from NPR. It's been more than three weeks since the U.S. and Russia completed the largest prisoner swap since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is an incredible relief for all the family members gathered here. It's a relief to the friends and colleagues all across the country who have been praying for this day for a long time. President Biden speaking from the state dining room on August 1st as news broke that three American citizens and one permanent resident were headed home. Russian-American journalist Alsu Kormasheva was one of them. As their families gathered at the White House in relief and celebration, Biden led a chorus of Happy Birthday for Kormasheva's daughter, who was turning 13. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Mary.

Kormasheva was back in Washington on Monday to receive an award from the National Press Club, and she and her husband, Pavel Buturin, stopped by our studios to tell their story. Welcome to you both, and also welcome home. Thank you, Mary Lou, very much. Thank you. Happy to be home. Also, take me back to the moment. I know there were a number of twists and turns. You were detained, you were fined, you were detained again. Was there a specific moment when it became clear to you things are going very wrong?

I am not free to leave Russia, and I don't know when or if I will be. It was last winter when I was losing my hope and those feelings of despair were taking over. It was a very cold winter. Where were you? In Kazan, in Tatarstan. My captors kept saying that nobody wants you back there. Negotiations are not going on. They haven't even started.

And you will end up here with a long sentence. I remember my thoughts those days. My cellmate and I were talking about how it might feel freezing to death. And she said that she read somewhere that it's not that painful. I just thought that how it might feel if they really sent me to a prison camp for years and years. And then I made a plan that it's not going to happen. I will fight for myself and I know my family will fight for me. And at that point, I didn't even know about the scale of the campaign to release me. What was a typical day like during those months that you were in prison? Every day was very similar to each other. The wake-up call was at 6 a.m. We made our beds.

I was kept in isolation for six months, and then later they transferred me to a cell with nine other women, so it was 10 of us. And being a woman, I think it's so important to have basic hygiene conditions and everything in the cell, but the conditions were really hard. They were unbearable. Finally, I got access to the prison library, which wasn't bad. The selection of books was good. So I read a lot. I responded to letters I was getting. We were allowed to leave the cell only to see a doctor and to have that one hour walk per day. Or we left the cell to see the investigator and we left the cell for the interrogations and court hearings. Otherwise, we were locked. And those locked doors traumatized me a lot. There were chains and there were locks and there were keys.

And it took the guards, I don't know, it felt like minutes. I know it was quick, but it felt like minutes and minutes, them to open that door. And we were hearing that iron metal sound of unlocking the doors. That was horrible. What you were convicted of was spreading false information about the Russian military. For the record, did you spread false information about Russia's military? Of course, I didn't spread false information. I'm a journalist and the fact checking is our strongest, strongest skill

at RFURL and editing is the strongest skill at RFURL. You had edited a book, right? Telling the stories of Russians who opposed the war in Ukraine. I co-edited the book, bringing the information, the stories of those 40 brave people who opposed the war. That wasn't fake. That was true. People were telling their true stories. And that was the problem with the Russians. They didn't want the true story to be out. Do you regret that book, given everything that happened after? No, I don't regret that book. And I will always say that our job is dangerous. What we're doing is dangerous, especially us at RFURL. I want to put to you a question that has been put to some of the senior U.S. officials who negotiated this prisoner exchange, which is whether swaps like the one that secured your freedom will encourage Russia to detain more Americans. You're good leverage for Vladimir Putin to get what he wants. How do you think about that? I don't think there is correlation between that. I don't want to believe there is correlation between the swaps and the hostage-taking.

Holding journalists, holding those innocent people for an exchange, it shouldn't be happening. Curiously, the same question was often asked of me and even my daughters. And, you know, we're obviously the wrong people to ask. We can't, you know, my daughters definitely could not put a price on their mother's life. And, you know, I think by doing this, the free world showed that the free world places a higher value on human life and family values, to be honest, to a point that we are willing to trade real criminals, real spies, in order to save wrongfully detained Americans from imprisonment.

Will you go back also to Russia? Not now. But it was a place of strength and power for me. I grew up there. I went to school there. I went to college there. I admired people for their strength. It will stay like that.

I don't have to travel back there to feel that way. What happened to me was a very nasty and ugly thing to do to me as a journalist, as a mother of two children. And as a woman, I would say that it shouldn't be happening to anyone. That's Russian-American journalist Alsu Kormasheva and her husband, Pavel Butorin. She is free today after being imprisoned in Russia for more than nine months. Thanks to you both. Thank you. Thank you for having us on. This episode was produced by Catherine Fink with audio engineering by Andy Huther.

It was edited by Sarah Handel and Courtney Dornan. Our executive producer is Sammy Yinnigan. And one more thing before we go, you can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter. We still help you break down a major story of the day. You will also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.