A year ago on Friday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich received a blood-curdling phone call from the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal. Their son, Evan, a foreign correspondent for The Journal who was in Russia on a reporting project, failed the each day security check.
“We hoped it was some kind of mistake, that everything would be fine,” recalls the elderly Mr. Gerszkowicz. But the stunning reality became clear: Russian authorities detained Evan and charged him with spying for the U.S. government, making him the primary American reporter held in Russia on espionage charges since the tip of the Cold War.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich, 32, has been held in Moscow’s notorious maximum-security Lefortovo Prison – the identical facility where people accused of this month’s deadly attack on a concert hall are being held. The Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny that Gershkovich is a spy, saying he is an accredited journalist doing his job.
On Tuesday, Mr. Gershkovich’s detention was prolonged for an additional three months. No trial date has been set.
“Every day is very difficult. Every day we feel like he’s not here,” Ms. Milman said. “We want him at home, and it’s been a year. It costs.”
Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs, said the U.S. government was conducting “intense efforts” to secure Mr. Gershkovich’s release, as well as the release of another detained American, Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran who is also accused of espionage.
“Journalism is not a crime,” Carstens said in a statement. “Evan Gershkovich was doing his job and should not have been detained by Russia.”
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s recent public comments about a possible prisoner exchange could also be cause for optimism, said Jay Conti, general counsel at Dow Jones, the Journal’s parent company.
Last month, in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Putin suggested he desired to trade Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for the murder of a goal in a Berlin park.
Early talks between U.S. and German officials aimed to explore whether Berlin could be willing to release the killer if Russia released opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny, in addition to Gershkovich and Whelan. But Mr. Navalny died mysteriously last month in an Arctic prison, ending that possibility.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that the U.S. doesn’t hold many high-profile Russians, which makes any potential deal that much more complicated,” Conti said. “I believe the U.S. government has been actively trying to bring Evan home, but obviously it takes a willing partner and an agreement to do so.”
In prison, Gershkovich plays a slow game of chess via email along with his father and appears at book recommendations from friends, his parents say. He also keeps track of individuals’s birthdays and major events, arranging for others to send flowers, including to his mother and sister on International Women’s Day this month.
“It’s a very small, very isolated place with a small window and very little time outside,” the daddy said of his son’s cell. “We know it takes a lot of courage, effort and strength to stay together, exercise, meditate, read books, write letters and encourage us to stay strong and hope for the best.”
Mr. Gershkovich exchanges letters weekly along with his family, in addition to friends and pen pals around the globe. A gaggle of his friends founded approx website where letters may be submitted, which, as required by law, can be translated into Russian and sent to Mr. Gershkovich, who is delighted to receive them, his mother said.
“He fights. It keeps your spirits up,” said Ms. Milman.
Gershkovich grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Jewish immigrants who fled the Soviet Union in the Nineteen Seventies. His parents said he was interested by his Russian heritage from an early age and spoke Russian at home. He was also interested in people, so he began studying philosophy and English at Bowdoin College in Maine, which he graduated in 2014. Journalism appeared like the proper solution.
After nearly two years as a news assistant at The New York Times, Gershkovich moved to Russia in late 2017 to work as a reporter for The Moscow Times. Before joining The Journal in January 2022, he worked at Agence France-Presse, a job his parents said he loved.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Gershkovich left Moscow together with most foreign journalists and moved to London. However, he often returned to Russia as a part of reporting trips.
The Wall Street Journal worked hard to bring Mr. Gershkovich’s situation to front-page news, said Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief. There is a large photo of him in the newsroom, and his colleagues wear pins that say “Free Evan.” The magazine’s home page provides updates on Mr. Gershkovich’s case, and the corporate is organizing letter-writing campaigns, social media storms and even a 24-hour reading marathon of Mr. Gershkovich’s reporting.
“We have to keep the pressure on,” Ms. Tucker said. “We do not give up”.
His arrest was a particularly chilling moment in Putin’s crackdown on independent media and dissent. Although a whole bunch of independent Russian journalists were expelled from the country, Putin had not yet imprisoned any Western journalists on charges that may have put them in jail.
Russian authorities arrested Whelan in 2018, charging him with espionage, charges that he and the U.S. government deny. In early 2022, Russian authorities arrested basketball player Brittney Griner, accusing her of drug smuggling. Later, they exchanged her for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, whose repatriation from an American prison that they had been attempting to have for years.
Ms. Griner’s firing in late 2022 and the imbalance in the swap – a basketball player caught with hash oil for an arms dealer – raised fears that Mr. Putin would goal other Americans, realizing they could possibly be used as leverage to secure high-profile , dangerous Russians caught in the West.
Mr. Gerszkowicz’s arrest took place a few months later. This had wide-ranging consequences for coverage of Russia, as many major newsrooms withdrew their journalists from the country and reassessed the chance of any reporting in the region. Another journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, an American-Russian national working for the U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in October when she traveled to Russia to go to her mother. She was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and stays in custody.
Gulnoza Said, program coordinator for Europe and Central Asia on the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an interview that journalists in Russia already knew they were “at constant risk.”
“Prior to the Evan case, foreign correspondents who may have been perceived as too critical of Russian policy were denied visa extensions or accreditation,” Said explained. “It has become clear that the Russian authorities will stop at nothing to suppress independent media.”
Mr. Gershkovich’s parents said they volunteered their time to maintain the Biden administration focused on him, meeting with President Biden, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser. This year, they traveled to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum and were guests of the State of the Union address on March 7, when the president said the United States was working “around the clock” to bring Mr. Gerszkowicz home.
“We know they are involved and that President Biden is involved, but we would like to see a resolution as quickly as possible,” Ms. Milman said.
A trial date for Mr. Gershkovich is expected to be set in the approaching months, said Conti, general counsel at Dow Jones. The hearing would happen behind closed doors and its course could be opaque.
Until then, Gershkovich’s parents said, they still hope for his release.
“We have to be optimistic to continue playing,” his father said. “We don’t have any other skills to deal with it.”
Paweł Sonne reporting contributed.
