Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for RFE/RL who holds both U.S. and Russian passports, marked her 100th day in a Russian jail on Jan. 25, without getting the official U.S. State Department recognition of being ‘wrongfully detained.’

RFE/RL reported that Kurmasheva was living in Prague with her family and went to Russia in May 2023 for a family crisis. She was stopped from leaving Russia the next month, when the authorities took away her Russian and American passports, allegedly because she did not register her U.S. passport.

On Oct. 19, while waiting for her passports to be given back, she was accused of breaking the law by not declaring herself a foreign agent, RFE/RL confirmed.

She was later also accused of spreading false information about the Russian military, a common tactic used by the Russian government to silence those who oppose its full-scale war on Ukraine.

Kurmasheva has been in pre-trial detention ever since, and her detention has been prolonged several times.

RFE/RL has asked the U.S. State Department many times to officially declare Kurmasheva as ‘wrongfully detained,’ as it has done for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who are also U.S. citizens in Russian prisons.

‘We urge the U.S. State Department to swiftly designate Alsu as ‘wrongfully detained,’” said RFE/RL’s acting President Stephen Capus.

“It is a tragedy to be unjustly imprisoned for even one day, but it is outrageous for a U.S. citizen to be wrongfully held in a Russian prison for 100 days.”

U.S. officials have consistently criticized Kurmasheva’s detention, but it is not clear why she has not received the official recognition yet.

“We have no specific updates on any designation, but our top priority is the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad,” said U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel in a press conference on Jan. 24.

“We are extremely worried about the extension of her pretrial detention,” he said.

Kurmasheva wrote in a recent letter that RFE/RL shared earlier in January that it often takes weeks for her to get foreign mail.

“To be honest, it’s getting harder and harder to cope,” she wrote.”