Jailed WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich marks one year detained in Russia
Evan Gershkovich marks one-year behind bars in a Russian jail Friday, but a government negotiator remains hopeful, saying “what we’re doing seems to be working,” when it comes to bringing him home.
A Moscow court extended The Wall Street Journal reporter’s detention by three months on Tuesday, as he awaits trial on dubious espionage charges, but the government remain hopeful they can broker a deal.
Roger D. Carstens, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs of the US, told CNN: “What we’re doing seems to be working.
“If we can find that one offer that’s going to work on the Russians, that’s going to bring Evan and Paul [Whelan, another US citizen detained in Russia] home.”
Gershkovich, now 32, was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for allegedly violating the country’s anti-espionage laws, during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in late March 2023.
Russian authorities have accused the US citizen of “acting on the instructions of the American side” and collecting state secrets about the military.
Gershkovich and his employer have vehemently denied the allegations, and the US government has declared him to be “wrongfully detained”.
He is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is notorious for its harsh conditions, and will now remain in custody until at least June 30.
Separately, former marine Whelan was sentenced to 16 years for espionage in 2020, charges which he and US authorities have denied.
Gershkovich’s family are also trying to remain calm and positive, with his sister Danielle Gershkovich saying she takes comfort from seeing he is OK at his court appearances.
She told NewsNation: ” I also look at those photos from the courtroom, the footage … I’m grateful I get to get a little glimpse of him.
“And the letters, that keeps me going. We still write to each other about once a week. My letters are getting longer and longer. It’s a chance for me to feel like I’m sitting with him, talking to him. Every time a letter comes, it feels like Christmas morning.”
Gershkovich’s parents have also said they are trying to remain optimistic their son will be released, fearing that “pessimism will kill” their spirit — even as birthdays and holidays pass while he is behind bars.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted Gershkovich was “caught red-handed when he was secretly getting classified information”.
But so far, the Russian government has not publicly presented any evidence to support its claims against Gershkovich.
US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended Tuesday’s court hearing and reiterated that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue”.
“This verdict to further prolong Evan’s detention feels particularly painful,” she said in a statement, noting the anniversary of his arrest.
Gershkovich has appealed for release several times over the the last year, but has each time had those appeals denied, and his pre-trial detention extended.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Wednesday: “Evan’s tragic case shows that American adversaries prey upon the innocent to execute their authoritarian foreign policy objectives. The Biden administration must do all it can to secure his immediate release.”
In a statement, the WSJ said Wednesday’s ruling “ensures Evan will sit in a Russian prison well past one year.”
The outlet also slammed the legal process as so far being made up of “baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is — a journalist who was doing his job”.
“He should never have been detained,” the statement continued.
“Journalism is not a crime and we continue to demand his immediate release.”
In a February interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin said that Moscow would trade him for the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany.
German officials have not commented on if there had been any effort by Russia to secure the swap.
Gershkovich grew up in New Jersey with his parents who had fled their home country of Russia during the height of the Cold War and subsequently became multi-lingual.
He later decided to move to Russia to work as a journalist but fled to London when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. However, he regularly returned to Russia to report on issues in the country for the WSJ.
During one of these trips on March 29, 2023, Gershkovich was arrested and charged with espionage — accusations rejected by him, the Journal and the White House.
He has been imprisoned in the country ever since.
Gershkovich is the first Western journalist to be held on espionage charges since the fall of the Soviet Union.
