Wall Street Journal reporter jailed on hyped spy charges

Evan Gershkovich used his language skills to explain Russia to the outside world but fell foul of a regime determined to put on a Soviet-era show trial, writes Chris Stevenson

- Chris Stevenson

Appearing in court, Evan Gershkovich would often crack a smile or laugh for the cameras from inside the glass-walled cage he was being held in. On another occasion, he made a heart shape with his hands and put it to his chest. A message to family, friends and the wider world that the trumped-up espionage charges for which he was handed a 16-year sentence would not break him.

It is a fate he had seen befall many others – dissidents, critics and journalists – but the risk increased significantly in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. Gershkovich tweeted in July of that year that it had become “a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years”. Less than 12 months later, he was in prison himself – the first US journalist to be accused of spying in Russia since the Cold War.

The 32-year-old was detained while doing his job. He was on a reporting trip for his newspaper, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), to Yekaterinburg, around 900 miles east of Moscow. A day later, he was presented inside a Moscow courthouse, flanked by security personnel, wearing a mustard coat, its hood pulled over his head.

Reaction was swift and vociferous; the arrest was denounced by the WSJ, the White House and world leaders. But the calls for him to be released were ignored by Moscow, which tried to claim he had been caught red-handed with classified material. No such evidence has ever been produced in the public domain.