On 16 November 2023, security forces searched the home of Iskander Siraji, the owner and editor-in-chief of Siraji Suze, a newspaper published in the city of Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Tatarstan region. The newspaper’s offices in Kazan were also reportedly searched. According to Siraji, the searches were linked to the arrest in October of Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with the Tatar-Bashkir service of RFE/RL, an international media corporation active across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Kurmasheva, a dual U.S. and Russian citizen who normally lives in Prague, where RFE/RL has its headquarters, was detained in Kazan and placed under arrest on charges of not voluntary registering as a “foreign agent”. She had traveled to Tatarstan in May on urgent family matters, RFE/RL reported at the time.
According to Siraji, security forces searched his apartment in the early hours, confiscating his phones and computers, as well as electronics belonging to his wife and children. Security forces reportedly also confiscated a camera without a memory card belonging to him. Siraji told the Tatar-Bashkir service of RFE/RL that he believed the searches were meant to “paralyze his work”. RFE/RL said that the journalist had never worked for the media corporation.
“RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva allegedly collected information that constituted a state secret. Kurmasheva, apparently, asked some professor how many people were mobilized [into the Russian army] from his university. And this, apparently, is a big crime. Allegedly, I am somehow connected with this crime,” Siraji said in a video that he recorded and published on social media after the morning searches.
UPDATE: On 9 October 2024, security forces searched the home of Siraji in Kazan, confiscating computers and mobile phones. Siraji was also taken for an interrogation to the local office of the Investigative Committee of Russia on unclear charges. It was also unclear whether Siraji was later released and whether charges were formulated against him. On October 11, Russian independent media reported that Siraji had been released, and that he had gone on hunger strike while in detention.