The Wall Street Journal reporter faces 20 years in a Russian prison.
Less than a year after WNBA player Brittney Griner was released from a Russian penal colony in a controversial prisoner swap between the United States and Russia, yet another American has been detained in the Kremlin. This time, it’s a 31-year-old journalist named Evan Gershkovich. He was in Russia on a reporting trip for the Wall Street Journal in March when he was arrested on charges of espionage.
Now, Gershkovich is fighting for his freedom — and while there’s reason to hope he will come home in the not-too-distant future, it’s also true that he faces a long road ahead.
On Tuesday, Gershkovich was seen in a Moscow courtroom for the first time since his arrest. Here are the details of the charges against him.
What happened to Evan Gershkovich?
Last month, Gershkovich was detained by Russian police in Yekaterinburg, a Russian city. He was accused of espionage, a charge that can carry up to 20 years in prison in Russia.
Gershkovich, his lawyers, and his employers have denied the charges wholesale. Maria Korchagina, one of the lawyers representing Gershkovich, recently said, “He would like to fight and prove that he is not guilty.”
Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal, released its own statement as well. “Evan is wrongfully detained and the charges of espionage against him are false,” the statement said. “We demand his immediate release and are doing everything in our power to secure it.”
At the court hearing in Moscow on Tuesday, Gershkovich stood behind a glass casing while a judge deliberated on his appeal. At one point, Gershkovich notably smiled at a few fellow journalists he recognized. At the end of the hearing, the judge denied Gershkovich’s appeal to lift his pretrial detention.
Now, he will remain in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison until the next hearing, which is expected to take place in May at the earliest.
Will there be a prisoner swap for Evan Gershkovich?
Last August, Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison at a Russian penal colony after being found guilty on smuggling charges. Then, four months later, she was released back to the United States in a prisoner exchange between the two countries.
So will that happen to Gershkovich, too?
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, a top Russian diplomat, it’s likely that the two nations will attempt to conduct a prisoner exchange including Gershkovich. However, Russia will only begin those negotiations after a formal trial has taken place.
To a Russian news agency last week, Ryabkov said, “We have a working channel that was used in the past to achieve concrete agreements, and these agreements were fulfilled…[but] the issue of exchanging anyone could only be considered after a court delivers its verdict.”
This information is bittersweet news for Gershkovich. It’s relieving to know that there are plans to negotiate a prisoner swap for the young journalist, but it’s also devastating to know there’s no chance of that swap taking place in the very near future — and when you keep in mind that some espionage cases in Russia have taken over a year to complete, and the fact that Russian prisons are notoriously dangerous, the stakes of the situation become all too clear.
Will Paul Whelan be released?
As speculation swirls around the topic of prisoner swaps, you might be thinking of another name besides Gershkovich: Paul Whelan.
Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was arrested in Russia in 2018, and convicted in 2020 of espionage charges. Like Gershkovich, Whelan has maintained his innocence.
In the time since Whelan’s arrest, two Americans have been arrested and subsequently released from Russian custody: Griner and former Marine Trevor Reed. Now, with news of Gershkovich’s trial inspiring conversations about a potential prisoner swap in the future, Whelan’s family is once more making a plea to include him in any negotiations.
Unfortunately, Whelan himself seems to be losing hope.
Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, spoke to ABC News on Monday about his brother’s waning optimism. He said Whalen had told their parents that “he feels as though the U.S. government has abandoned him.”
David went on, “I think that there was an opportunity to bring him home in 2020 and the U.S. government decided not to do that, and then since then, it’s just become very difficult. And I think it’s not going to get easier with a second American charged with espionage by the Kremlin.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly requested that his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, secure the release of both Gershkovich and Whelan.
President Joe Biden has also spoken publicly on the matter. “We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening, and we declared it so,” he said.
