"Whether you're drinking coffee or drilling a hole in the wall to hang a cabinet, do it now." How the arrested Radio Liberty journalist spends her days
"NeMoskva" wrote about the arrest in Kazan editors of the publication Idel.Realii Alsu KurmashevaThe journalist is accused of failing to report herself: Kurmasheva was required to provide Russian authorities with documents to be recognized as a "foreign agent."
The journalist has been in pretrial detention for almost a month now. threatens up to 5 years imprisonment.
In her cell, Alsou practices yoga, studies Armenian and Dargin, and teaches her fellow inmates Tatar. She also actively corresponds with her friends and relatives. Excerpts from the letters приводит Idel.Realities.
"What's inside me? Today I'm crying for the first time since... I don't even know where the starting point begins. I wasn't expecting any letters or packages, to be honest. And when everything arrived unexpectedly, I couldn't take it anymore. Everything touched me." Kurmasheva wrote to her friends in the first days after her arrest.
The journalist's friends feared censors wouldn't allow letters in Tatar, so at first they used only Russian. But it soon became clear that this was not a problem, and recently Kurmashova even sent her translation of a poem by the poet Gabdulla Tukai into modern Tatar.
"That's how my days go. Between all these 'cares,' there are more fulfilling events. Everything you're doing is the most necessary and important thing right now. Whether you're drinking coffee or drilling a hole in the wall to hang a cabinet—do it now.".