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The Americans behind Russian bars

One man鈥檚 plight to free his wife from Russian incarceration

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鈥檚 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鈥檚 husband Pavel Butorin, professor Angela Stent from Georgetown University and the 成人快手s Steve Rosenberg.

Today鈥檚 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鈥檚 Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord

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30 minutes

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