Update: On July 19, 2024, in a three-day show trial, Russian courts sentenced Evan Gershkovich to a 16-year prison sentence to be served in a high-security penal colony. The United States government considers Gershkovich to be wrongfully detained and continues to advocate for his unconditional release, along with other Americans unjustly imprisoned by Russia.
The below article was originally published on March 31, 2023.
The Russian government on March 30, 2023 arrested and charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage, a Wall Street Journal reporter on assignment in Russia, who was fully accredited by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The White House swiftly condemned the arrest and called for Gershkovich’s release.
Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, a major industrial city 800 miles east from Moscow, where he was supposedly investigating the activities of the Wagner Group, the infamous Russian private military organization that is involved in the war in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts around the globe. Earlier this year, the U.S. government designated the Wagner Group as a “significant transnational criminal organization” and imposed sanctions against them.
Why it matters
Gershkovich’s arrest — the first detention of an American journalist in Russia in nearly 40 years — is a major new escalation between Putin and the U.S. Having recently unjustly imprisoned WNBA basketball star Britney Griner, who was ultimately freed in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the Kremlin has sunk to a new low in kidnapping an accredited American journalist. The Wall Street Journal has called on the Biden Administration to expel the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. as well as all remaining Russian journalists working in the U.S.
Bottom line
This action by the Kremlin is meant to stifle any remaining independent reporting from Russia, a country that is rapidly plunging into the repressive Stalinist darkness of the late 1930’s. As the White House has reiterated, under no circumstances should Americans travel to Russia and all remaining Americans should leave immediately. Under the most optimistic scenario, Gershkovich’s arrest will be temporary before he is expelled from the country. The more ominous scenario is that of Kremlin prisoner Paul Whelan, a former United States Marine, who is serving an unjust 16-year sentence in Russia’s infamous Lefortovo prison – where Gershkovich is also being held.
The U.S. and its allies should continue to hold Russia accountable through additional diplomatic pressure and sanctions for this unjustified action against the free press as well as the brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
