For Evan Gershkovich, a dozen appearances in Moscow\u2019s courts over the past year have fallen into a pattern. Guards take the American journalist from the notorious Lefortovo Prison in a van for the short drive to the courthouse. He\u2019s led in handcuffs to a defendant\u2019s cage in front of a judge for yet another hearing about his pre-trial detention on espionage charges. The proceedings are always closed. His appeals are always rejected, and his time behind bars is always extended. Then it\u2019s back to Lefortovo.<\/p>\n
Gershkovich was arrested a year ago Friday while on a reporting trip for The Wall Street Journal to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleges he was acting on US orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation, which he, the Journal and the US government deny. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.<\/p>\n
The periodic court hearings give Gershkovich\u2019s family, friends and US officials a glimpse of him, and for the 32-year-old journalist, it\u2019s a break from his otherwise largely monotonous prison routine. \u201cIt\u2019s always a mixed feeling. I\u2019m happy to see him and that he\u2019s doing well but it\u2019s a reminder that he is not with us. We want him at home,\u201d Gershkovich\u2019s mother, Ella Milman, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Although Gershkovich is often seen smiling in the brief appearances in open court, friends and family say he finds it hard to face a wall of cameras pointing at him as if he were an animal in a zoo. Ahead of the most recent one on Tuesday, Milman was particularly interested to see him. She was waiting, she said, for \u201ca big reveal\u201d \u2013 Gershkovich\u2019s cellmate had given him a haircut. But the hearing itself offered no new revelations on his case: He was ordered to remain behind bars pending trial at least until June 30 \u2013 the fifth extension of his detention.<\/p>\n
When Gershkovich was arrested a year ago \u2013 the first US journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 at the height of the Cold War \u2013 it came as a shock, even though Russia had enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after the invasion of Ukraine. \u201cHe was accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry. There was nothing to suggest that this was going to happen,\u201d said Emma Tucker, the Journal\u2019s editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n
The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich moved to Russia in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022. \u201cHe absolutely loved it,\u201d Milman said of her son\u2019s life in Moscow. He threw himself into work and became close friends with other reporters. They spent evenings, weekends and holidays together \u2013 at traditional Russian saunas, cycling around Moscow or having barbecues in the countryside.<\/p>\n
Those friends are now among the most vocal advocates for his release. For us, it\u2019s got to the level where if we can see Evan smiling in the courtroom \u2014 that stuff that brings us a lot of happiness. It\u2019s reassuring that he\u2019s still not been broken by it,\u201d said Washington Post correspondent Francesca Ebel. His supporters say that is remarkable, given that Gershkovich is being held in Lefortovo, a notorious czarist-era prison used during Josef Stalin\u2019s purges, when executions were carried out in its basement.<\/p>\n
Gershkovich is not allowed phone calls and wakes up \u201cevery morning to the same gray prison wall. \u2026 To think that he\u2019s been doing that every day for the past year is just horrible,\u201d said his friend, Polina Ivanova of the Financial Times. He\u2019s allowed out of his cell for a hour a day to exercise. He spends the rest of his time largely reading books in English and Russian and writing letters to friends and family who try to make sure he stays up to date with current affairs and gossip.<\/p>\n
That includes following his favourite English soccer team, Arsenal, which is having one of its best seasons, even though scores usually get to him about two weeks late. Gershkovich can see only limited highlights on Russian TV but is kept up to date by his friend, Pjotr Sauer of the British newspaper, the Guardian. \u201cHe is very happy about how Arsenal is playing but obviously upset he can\u2019t see it for himself,\u201d Sauer said.<\/p>\n
Mikhail Gershkovich writes to his son about chess strategy because his cellmate doesn\u2019t like the game. They also discuss artificial intelligence because \u201che wants to be current when he comes back,\u201d his father said. No one knows when that might be. The Biden administration is seeking the release of Gershkovich, who faces 20 years in prison. Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry has said it would consider a prisoner swap \u2013 but only after a verdict in his trial, which has not yet begun.<\/p>\n
US Ambassador Lynne Tracy, who was in court again Tuesday for his latest hearing, said the charges against Gershkovich \u201care fiction\u201d and that Russia is \u201cusing American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.\u201d Since invading Ukraine, Russian authorities have detained several US nationals and other Westerners, seemingly bolstering that idea.<\/p>\n
President Vladimir Putin has said he believed a deal can be reached to free Gershkovich, hinting he would be open to swapping him for a Russian national in Germany who fits the description of Vadim Krasikov. He is serving a life sentence for the 2019 killing in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent. US officials made an offer to swap Gershkovich last year that was rejected by Russia, and the Biden administration has not made public any possible deals since then.<\/p>\n
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Gershkovich wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that \u201creporting on Russia is now also a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years.\u201d Fluent in Russian, Gershkovich knew the risks and, after his arrest, knew \u201cright from the very start that this was going to take a long time,\u201d Ebel said. The Journal\u2019s Tucker said she is \u201coptimistic that 2024 will be the year Evan is freed but I\u2019m also realistic,\u201d noting that any negotiations for a swap are taking place against a \u201cvery febrile\u201d backdrop.<\/p>\n
That includes tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine, the recent attack on a Moscow concert hall and the US presidential election. Friends and family say Gershkovich is relying on his sense of humour to get through the days. Tracy said outside court Tuesday that he has displayed \u201cremarkable resilience and strength in the face of this grim situation.\u201d From behind bars, he has organized presents for friends on their birthdays as well as sending flowers to important women in his life for International Women\u2019s Day earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is telling people not to freak out,\u201d said Milman, noting that her son is a source of great pride for the family. But as he enters his second year of detention, the strain on them is showing. Every day, Milman said, \u201cI wake up and look at the clock.\u201d \u201cI think about if his lunchtime has passed, and his bedtime,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard. It\u2019s taking a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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