The Fight to Free Evan
Time|March 25, 2024
On March 29, 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on bogus espionage charges. He remains imprisoned in Moscow-a political hostage in his parents' homeland. Inside the struggle to bring him home
By Charlotte Alter. Photograph by Natalia Kolesnikova
The Fight to Free Evan

Mikhail recalls his father, who grew up under Stalin, offering a piece of advice: If you're going to tell a political joke, "make sure there are no witnesses." Mikhail and Ella both emigrated to the U.S. in 1979, seeking to escape rising antisemitism and life under Soviet rule. They met in Brooklyn in the 1980s, got married, and raised an American family in suburban New Jersey. Their daughter Danielle took swimming and gymnastics. Their son Evan played soccer.

"Here, we can relax," says Mikhail. "Just find yourself. Decide what you want to do." Evan Gershkovich decided he wanted to be a journalist, a calling that took him back to his parents' homeland. He had grown up speaking Russian, and wanted to use his familiarity with the language and culture to pursue his career. He worked as a reporter for the Moscow Times, Agence France-Presse, and the Wall Street Journal. When Ella worried about him writing articles critical of the Russian government or economy, her son explained that he was an "accredited journalist," his mother recalls, repeating the phrase as though it were a magic shield.

But it wasn't. On March 29, 2023, Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russian security forces while meeting a source at a restaurant in Yekaterinburg, an industrial city about a thousand miles east of Moscow. He has been a political prisoner in Moscow's Lefortovo prison for nearly a year, the first American journalist to be accused of espionage in Russia since the Cold War.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM TIMEView all
A timely thriller for a mad, mad world
Time

A timely thriller for a mad, mad world

A’70s-style paranoid thriller grounded in the partisan polarization of today

time-read
2 mins  |
December 09, 2024
Freshwater reserves
Time

Freshwater reserves

A troubling dip

time-read
1 min  |
December 09, 2024
An exuberant ode to human possibility
Time

An exuberant ode to human possibility

VERY RARELY DOES THE RIGHT MOVIE ARRIVE AT precisely the right time, at a moment when compassion is in short supply and the collective human imagination has come to feel shrunken and desiccated.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 09, 2024
Broadcasting a crisis for the world to see
Time

Broadcasting a crisis for the world to see

ON SEPT. 5, 1972, A 32-YEAR-OLD PRODUCER NAMED Geoffrey S. Mason was working in a control room for ABC Sports in Munich while 12 hostages, including several members of the Israeli Olympic delegation, were being held in a building nearby.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 09, 2024
The Power of the Peer
Time

The Power of the Peer

WITH MENTAL-HEALTH CARE IN SHORT SUPPLY, CAN REGULAR PEOPLE FILL THE GAP?

time-read
7 mins  |
December 09, 2024
QUEERING THE STORY
Time

QUEERING THE STORY

Luca Guadagnino directs Daniel Craig in an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1985 novella Queer

time-read
6 mins  |
December 09, 2024
Shopping under the influence
Time

Shopping under the influence

LTK CO-FOUNDER AMBER VENZ BOX SAW THE FUTURE OF RETAIL. IT TOOK YEARS FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD TO CATCH UP

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
The Kingmaker
Time

The Kingmaker

Elon Musk's partnership with the President-elect

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 09, 2024
Turkey's Erdogan plots his next power grab
Time

Turkey's Erdogan plots his next power grab

RECEP TAYYIP Erdogan is a political survivor.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 09, 2024
Why maiden names matter in the age of AI and identity
Time

Why maiden names matter in the age of AI and identity

IN THE DIGITAL AGE, A NAME IS MORE THAN JUST A label. It's tied to our professional history and social media presence.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 09, 2024