Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Russian-Israeli researcher who was held captive for more than two years in Iraq, has said her ordeal highlights the continuing influence of the country's militias and Baghdad's inability to control them.
The research fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, and Princeton University doctoral candidate, was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite militia. She was held in two different centres for 903 days, including at a secret prison where she was repeatedly tortured and forced to make false confessions about being a spy.
Speaking at an event in Washington on Wednesday, Ms Tsurkov credited US President Donald Trump's unpredictability and record of initiating strikes in Iraq, including against Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, as being key to securing her release, something she thought would never have been secured had Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election.
Iraqi militias are formally part of the Iraqi state but do not obey Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani and operate largely outside of Baghdad's control.
“Basically the militias are very willing to use force, while the government … is very hesitant about using violence against these forces,” Ms Tsurkov noted, pointing to Mr Al Sudani's inability to pressure her captors to release her.
The researcher, 39, who has criticised both Russian and Israeli policies in her work, said her countries did little to help secure her release, with Moscow being hostile to offering any assistance.
Ms Tsurkov suffered herniated discs, smashed teeth and nerve damage from the torture she endured. She was contemptuous of her “very stupid” captors but said they were adept at methods of torture, which they had practised “on the back of the Iraqi people”.
The Biden administration was also been reluctant to step in, considering Ms Tsurkov is not a US citizen. She said it was only when Mr Trump was elected and his friend Mark Savaya, who is of Iraqi descent and is now the US special envoy to Iraq, got involved that her release last September became possible. She also credited the tireless campaigning of her sister, Emma Tsurkov, for raising her profile in Washington.
“He travelled basically to Baghdad and conveyed the threat to the leadership of Kataib Hezbollah that if I'm not released within a week, the Trump administration is going to kill them,” Ms Tsurkov said. “I was released within a week, and this is why I'm here.”
Ms Tsurkov said the Trump administration did not offer anything in return for her release.
Her captivity coincided with much of the war in Gaza. She said her guards were initially euphoric after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, but this gradually gave way to doubts and despondency as the war ground on and Israel assassinated senior leaders from Iran-backed groups.
Then, in early 2024, the Biden administration struck several people it blamed for the militia attack of a remote US military outpost in Jordan.
Ms Tsurkov said her captors started acting “very paranoid … because basically they would assume that they're going to be attacked".
That paranoia was further compounded by Mossad operations, such as the pager attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“That day they were walking around shell-shocked,” she said of her guards. “The attack had a very significant effect on their morale, because of the humiliating factor that they purchased these explosives and tracking devices by themselves from the Mossad.”
Ms Tsurkov also emphasised that she saw how Iraq's militias have shifted their focus from ideology to financial motivations, and called on the US to do more to leverage its influence to tackle this.
She said corruption in Iraq is permeating the heart of government, a theme Mr Savaya has been drawing attention to. On Wednesday, the envoy said on X that corruption must be confronted “decisively”.
Ms Tsurkov said the militias' focus now is on maintaining control of the Iraqi state through political means and violence.
“So basically, participating in elections, buying votes, gaining seats in parliament,” she said.
