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.”

This photo posted to X.com by US President Joe Biden shows Biden and the families of detainees released as part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia on the phone for the first time since they were released in the White House in Washington, DC, on August 1, 2024. (Editor’s note: The document in Biden’s hand has been obscured by the White House.)

Related article Inside the ‘painstaking’ negotiations that led to the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War

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