Alsu Kurmasheva is a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). She is a dual citizen of the United States and Russia.

Kurmasheva is based in Prague. She returned to Russia because of a family emergency in May. She has been working with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service. She was temporarily detained while waiting for a return flight on June 2 at Kazan airport. Her U.S. and Russian passports were confiscated and she was not allowed to leave Russia. She has been there ever since.

On Wednesday, she was waiting for her passports to be returned to her when a charge against her was announced. She is charged with failure to register as a foreign agent. This is a designation that Russia requires of any organization or individual that Russia believes to receive foreign funding. Russia uses this requirement to target journalists and others who speak out against the Kremlin. RFE/RL is a U.S. government-funded media company.

Tatar-Inform, a Russian news outlet, reported that Russian authorities are accusing Kurmasheva of “conducting a targeted collection of military information about Russian activities via the Internet in order to transmit information to foreign sources.” NBC News has not been able to verify this claim.

The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement. They are “deeply concerned” about her detention. They call the charges “spurious” and called on Russian authorities to release her immediately.

The charge against her carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The Biden administration never seems to be prepared for anything that comes its way. The same is true here. The White House has not offered any reaction to what happened to Kurmasheva yesterday. She is the second American journalist to be detained in Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine. Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal based in Moscow, is being held on the charge of espionage. He was detained in March of this year. There has been no proof offered to prove such a charge against him. Since the war in Ukraine, Russia has passed new draconian legislation that makes reporting in the country dangerous for Russian and foreign journalists. Many news organizations have shut down an journalists have fled the country.

Her employer, RFE/RL, calls for her immediate release.

She was initially fined for failing to register her U.S. passport with the Russian authorities. Kurmasheva was waiting for her passports to be returned when the new charge was announced on October 18.

“Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife, and dedicated mother to two children,” RFE/RL acting President Jeffrey Gedmin said.

“She needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately.”

She lives in Prague with her husband and children.

The foreign agent laws have been used to label and punish Russian government policies since 2012.

It also has been increasingly used to shut down civil society and media groups in Russia since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The law allows authorities to label nonprofit organizations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activities.

I hope the Biden administration will work swiftly to have her declared “wrongfully detained” as they have done for other Americans detained overseas. That designation frees up more tools in the diplomatic tool box. Now, if only we had a competent Secretary of State and State Department…

Joe Biden is a weak leader. Foreign adversaries do not fear him or his responses to world events. This makes America look weak and endangers Americans all over the world. This journalist is the latest to suffer the consequences. Putin is jabbing his finger in Biden’s eye.