Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich hits 100 days in Russian detention

The 31-year-old Russian speaker, who had been accredited to work as a journalist by the Kremlin, was arrested in Yekaterinburg on March 29 and charged with espionage.

The Wall Street Journal and the US government have both denied the spying allegations, which carry a possible prison sentence of 20 years. Mr Gershkovich pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court in early April.

His arrest and detention marks the first time Russia has brought a spy case against an American reporter since the cold war.

His arrest is “a vicious affront to a free press” and “should spur outrage in all free people and governments throughout the world,” Mr Gershkovich’s bosses at the Wall Street Journal said.

“No reporter should ever be detained for simply doing their job.”

US President Joe Biden also expressed his outrage, telling reporters: “It’s totally illegal, what’s happening.”

Mr Gershkovich is being held in Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo prison, a perma-lit hellhole designed to make prisoners feel isolated.

In a two-page letter to his family dated April 5, Mr Gershkovich said he was “not losing hope” and he was reading, exercising and trying to write.

“Maybe, finally, I am going to write something good,” he wrote.

America’s ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, visited Mr Gershkovich in prison on Monday, with the State Department later reporting he was “in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances”.

Mr Gershkovich was initially set to be released by May 29, but in late June authorities announced he would remain in detention until at least August 30.

The State Department said Mr Gershkovich was being “wrongfully detained”, and it was working on ways to bring him home, along with another American convicted of spying, businessman Paul Whelan.

“We’ve brought a lot of Americans home over the last two and a half years … and Evan is front and centre in our thinking,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters last week.

News Corp – which publishes the Wall Street Journal, as well as this masthead – and the reporter’s family have issued a worldwide appeal for readers to show their support for Mr Gershkovich by adding the hashtag #IStandWithEvan to their social media posts.

A page on the Journal’s website also includes assets social media users can download, to further show their support.

See www.wsj.com/news/evan-gershkovich for more.