Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli researcher and doctoral student at Princeton University, has been released after being held captive in Baghdad for more than two and a half years. The announcement of her freedom on the night of September 9, 2025, brought an end to a high-stakes international case that involved allegations of espionage and intense diplomatic pressure.
Tsurkov, who was born in the Soviet Union and moved to Israel with her family, entered Iraq in 2022 on a Russian passport to conduct academic research for her PhD. She specialized in Middle Eastern affairs, with a focus on conflicts and political groups in Syria and Iraq. Her disappearance in March 2023 from a café in Baghdad’s Karrada district was widely reported to have been carried out by elements linked to Kataib Hezbollah. A video of her purportedly confessing to being an Israeli spy was later released, though her family and Princeton University dismissed it as a forced confession.
The narrative surrounding Tsurkov’s case was sharply divided. While some Iraqi factions and media outlets described her as an “Israeli spy” due to her nationality and past work, her family and university adamantly maintained she was a non-partisan academic researcher with no ties to any intelligence activities.
International efforts to secure her release included a visit by US Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler, to Baghdad in February 2025 to discuss a potential settlement. On the night of her release, President Donald Trump announced that Iraqi security forces, in coordination with Washington, had successfully located and extracted her in a secret operation. She was subsequently transferred to the US Embassy in Baghdad, where she was reported to have been subjected to torture during her captivity.
The debate over her identity was reignited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, after speaking with her family, stated that “all of Israel is happy with her return,” emphasizing her status as an Israeli citizen. This statement created additional controversy, as Iraqi authorities had previously identified her as a Russian national.
