One year since Russia jailed an American journalist

One year ago Friday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich received a chilling phone call from the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal.

His son, Evan, a foreign correspondent for the Journal who was on a reporting assignment in Russia, had missed his daily security check.

“We hoped that it was some kind of mistake, that everything would work out,” Mikhail Gershkovich recalls.

But the surprising reality became clear:

Russian authorities had detained Evan and charged him with spy for the US government, making him the first American reporter to be detained on espionage charges in Russia since the end of the Cold War.

Since his arrest, Evan Gershkovich, 32, has been held in Moscow’s notorious high-security Lefortovo prison, the same facility that is holding people accused of the deadly attack at a city concert hall this month.

The Journal and the US government have vehemently denied that Gershkovich is a spy, saying he was a accredited journalist who did his job.

On Tuesday, Gershkovich’s detention was extended for another three months.

A trial date has not been set.

“Every day is very difficult, every day we feel like he’s not here,” Milman said.

“We want him at home and it’s been a year. “It has taken its toll.”

Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs, said the US government was carrying out “intensive efforts” to secure Gershkovich’s release, as well as the release of another detained American, Paul Whelan, a Navy veteran who is also accused of espionage.

“Journalism is not a crime,” Carstens said in a statement.

“Evan Gershkovich was doing his job and Russia should not have stopped him.”

The president’s recent public comments Vladimir Putin of Russia over a possible prisoner swap could be cause for some optimism, said Jay Conti, general counsel for Dow Jones, the Journal’s parent company.

In an interview with the former presenter of Fox NewsTucker Carlson, Last month, Putin suggested he wanted to swap Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national imprisoned in Germany for murdering a target in a Berlin park.

The first talks between American and German officials explored whether Germany would be willing to let the killer go if Russia freed the opposition leader. Alexei Navalny as well as Gershkovich and Whelan.

But Navalny died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison last month, derailing that possibility.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that there are not many high-profile Russians in US custody and therefore any potential deal is much more complicated,” Conti said.

“I think the United States government has been active in its efforts to try to bring Evan home, but obviously it takes a willing partner and reaching an agreement to do that.”

While in prison, Gershkovich slowly plays a game of chess with his father by mail and works his way through book recommendations from friends, his parents said.

She also keeps track of people’s birthdays and important events, arranging through others to send flowers, including to her mother and sister on International Women’s Day this month.

“It’s a very small place, very isolated, with a small window and very little time outside,” his father said of his son’s cell.

“We know that it takes a lot of courage, effort and strength to stick together, exercise, meditate, read books, write letters, encourage each other to stay strong and hope for the best.”

Evan Gershkovich exchanges letters weekly with his family, as well as friends and pen pals around the world.

A group of friends created a website where people can send letters, which will be translated into Russian, as required by law, and sent to Gershkovich, who enjoys receiving them, his mother said.

“He is fighting. He’s keeping his spirits up,” Milman said.

Gershkovich grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Jewish emigrants who had fled the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

His parents said that since he was little he was curious about his Russian heritage and that he spoke Russian at home.

He also had an interest in people and studied philosophy and English at Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 2014.

Journalism seemed like a perfect fit.

After almost two years as a news assistant at The New York TimesGershkovich moved to Russia in late 2017 to work as a reporter for The Moscow Times.

He worked at Agence France-Presse before joining the Journal in January 2022, a job his parents said he loved.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Gershkovich left Moscow, along with most foreign journalists, and moved to London.

But he frequently returned to Russia on reporting trips.

The Journal has worked hard to keep Gershkovich’s plight in the headlines, said Emma Tucker, editor in chief.

The newsroom displays a large photograph of him and his colleagues wear badges that say “Free Evan.”

The Journal’s home page features updates on the Gershkovich case, and the company has organized letter-writing campaigns, social media storms and even a 24-hour read-a-thon of Gershkovich’s reporting.

“We have to keep the pressure on,” Tucker said.

His arrest marked a particularly chilling moment in Putin’s crackdown on independent media and dissent.

While hundreds of independent Russian journalists had been expelled from the country, Putin had until then jailed no Western journalists on charges that would land them in prison.

Russian authorities arrested Whelan in 2018, accusing him of espionage, charges he and the U.S. government deny.

In early 2022, Russian authorities arrested the basketball player Brittney Griner, accusing her of drug smuggling. She was later traded for a convicted arms dealer, Viktor Bout whose repatriation from a US prison they had been pursuing for years.

Griner’s release in late 2022 and the imbalance of the trade (a basketball player caught with some hash oil by an arms dealer) raised concerns that Putin would target other Americans, realizing they could be used as lever to secure dangerous and high-profile people.

Gershkovich’s arrest came a few months later.

It has had broad implications for Russia coverage, with many major newsrooms pulling their journalists out of the country and reassessing the risk of any reporting in the region.

Another journalist, Alsou Kurmasheva, a Russian-American citizen who works for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty station, was detained in October while traveling to Russia to visit her mother.

She was accused of failing to register as a foreign agent and remains in custody.

Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an interview that journalists in Russia now knew they were “under constant risk.”

“Prior to Evan’s case, foreign correspondents who may have been perceived as overly critical of Russian policies were denied visa extensions or accreditation,” Said explained.

“It became clear that the Russian authorities will stop at nothing in their repression of independent media.”

Gershkovich’s parents said they had dedicated their time to keeping the Biden administration focused on him, meeting with the president Joe Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan Biden’s national security advisor.

They traveled to Davos, Switzerland, this year for the World Economic Forum, and were invited to Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7, when the president said the United States was working “around the clock” to bring Gershkovich home.

“We know they are engaged and President Biden is engaged, but we would like to see a resolution as soon as possible,” Milman said.

A trial date for Gershkovich is expected to be set in the coming months, said Conti, general counsel for Dow Jones.

The trial would take place behind closed doors, with little transparency in the process.

Until then, Gershkovich’s parents said, they are still waiting for his release.

“We have to be optimistic to move forward,” his father said.

“We have no other skills to deal with this.”