Evan Gershkovich in Wall Street Journal Video
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal Russia correspondent arrested in that country on espionage allegations has finally been formally charged. The state-run Russian news agency TASS reported that Russian authorities “charged Gershkovich with espionage in the interests of his country,” meaning the United States.
The 31 year old American citizen was arrested at the end of March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg for what Russia’s Federal Security Service said was attempting to gather state secrets about the military-industrial complex.. This was the first time since the end of the Cold War more than 30 years ago that an American journalist was arrested in Russia and accused of being a spy. Evan Gershkovich is probably a victim of the recent tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.
TASS also reported that Evan Gershkovich “categorically denied all the accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia.”
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American politicans and leaders quickly came to the journalist’s defense. Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer and the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in a rare moment of bipartisanship issued a joint statement saying, “We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of US citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and demand the immediate release of this internationally known and respected independent journalist.”
“Let there be no mistake, they added, “journalism is not a crime.”
Many see this as an attempt to bully foreign correspondents in Russia after the country had already arrested its own citizens for treason just for reporting on the War in Ukraine in what the government felt was an unfavorable way.
Writing in Politico, fellow journalist Linda Kinstler said, “Evan may be the latest in a string of Americans detained in Russia in recent years, but his case is fundamentally unlike all the others, for Evan was abducted simply for doing his job.”
“Until recently, U.S. correspondents in Russia operated under the assumption that while the Kremlin might monitor their activities, Russian authorities would not target them in the same way that they have muzzled and jailed Russian journalists,” she added. “Now, unfortunately, we know that is not true. To say that a line has been crossed is to understate the gravity of the situation.”
The Wall Street Journal released a statement saying, “We’ve seen media reports indicating Evan has been charged. As we’ve said from the beginning, these charges are categorically false and unjustified, and we continue to demand Evan’s immediate release.”
While born in New York, Evan Gershkovich’s parents were both Russian Jews who fled that country in the 1970s fleeing persecution.
