Russia requests extradition of former national news anchor from Czechia

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has made a formal request to the Czech authorities for the extradition of a former Russian state TV news anchor who resigned from her role in protest over the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea and subsequently went into exile.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Farida Kurbangaleyeva described how she’d been handed a letter by the Czech police “saying that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had demanded my extradition,” calling the news “a great honour” as it meant Russia had recognised her “contribution to the fight against the criminal Putin regime”.

Kurbangaleyeva also posted a copy of a letter from the Czech police, which did not specify on what grounds the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had requested Kurbangaleyeva’s extradition, though she said she believed the charges were for justification of terrorism and spreading false information about the Russian military.

According to independent Russian news outlet Mediazona, an interview Kurbangaleyeva did for her YouTube channel in May with Alexey Baranovsky, a member of the Freedom of Russia Legion, which fights alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine against the Russian military, was likely to have been the reason for the Russian government’s request, as Baranovsky is named as a defendant in the same case.

Kurbangaleyeva said the charges were fabricated. “Knowing the integrity of Czechia in such matters, I am sure the motherland won’t get what it wants,” adding that she didn’t plan to take up the offer of a lawyer provided by the state.

A Moscow court first issued a warrant for Kurbangaleyeva’s arrest in absentia in June, when she was also added to the Russian government’s list of “foreign agents” and “extremists and terrorists”.

Kurbangaleyeva hosted the Vesti news programme on Russian state TV channel Russia-1 until 2014, and after going into exile she hosted the news on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty-affiliated TV channel Current Time from 2018 to 2021. She now lives in Prague and runs her own YouTube channel.