Consider This from NPR - One Year On, American Journalist Evan Gershkovich Remains In Russian Prison

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

This week Russian authorities extended the detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich. Authorities have yet to provide any evidence to backup charges that Gershkovich was spying, and no trial date has been set.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Back in June of 2019, Russia did something unusual. It dropped criminal charges against a journalist. Ivan Gulanov, a Russian journalist, was detained, then released, after police admitted there was a lack of evidence. Tomorrow there was set to be a march through central Moscow in support of Ivan. That is American reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was following the story from Moscow. I spoke with him about that public support, the March for Gulenov. Even though he's been released and all charges dropped, this could go ahead.

Exactly. And people are posting that they're not coming out so much for Ivan as for people like him, including other journalists who are currently sitting in jail, essentially fabricated trumped-up charges. Fast forward to last year, March of 2023, Evan Gershkovich was himself arrested. Russia's security agency says it has arrested a U.S. journalist working for the Wall Street Journal in Moscow on charges of espionage. Gershkovich was detained while on assignment for the journal and accused of trying to obtain state secrets. He is the first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since 1986. Gershkovich and the journal deny the allegations.

The U.S. State Department has designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, an official phrase that opens the way for government efforts to secure his release. But today, Evan Gershkovich remains imprisoned. The control room just told me that Russian state media is now reporting that the Russian court has extended his detention for another three months. And today, a Moscow district court extended his pretrial detention. This week, Russia added three more months to his detention. A trial date has not been set. NPR's Charles Mainz has been reporting from Moscow.

Here in Moscow, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynn Tracy called the court's ruling particularly painful, noting Gershkovich had lost a year of his life to charges that she called fiction. She also accused Russia of holding Americans as pawns for political gain. The Kremlin insists that Gershkovich was caught red-handed without providing any evidence. And so Gershkovich has been really stuck in the fort of a prison. This is a grim czarist-era jail here in Moscow awaiting trial. Consider this.

Friday marks one year since Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russian security forces. We'll speak with his sister about the fight to bring him home. We just want all Americans who are detained abroad to be home and reunited with their families. From NPR. For 24 straight hours this week, friends and family and colleagues of Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal came together to read his stories out loud. Soldier describes early chaos by Evan Gershkovich. The resulting mistakes have shaped Russia's disastrous invasion of Ukraine.

The war continues into the second year, and Western sanctions bite harder. This is his journalism, and journalism is not a crime. The marathon reading was designed to celebrate his work one year after he was detained in Russia on spying allegations. He is still waiting on a trial. And this week, a Russian court extended his detention by another three months. Well, we called Danielle Gershkovich, Evan's big sister. I had spoken with her before, last fall, and she told me she had been swapping letters every week or so with her brother. I asked if that was still the case.

Yes. I look forward to them every week. Sometimes there's a bit of a delay in the mail, but it's definitely a nice light in some of this dark time. Yeah. May I ask when you last heard from him? I got a letter last week from him. It was really funny. He's very excited for my husband and I to move and have a guest bedroom for him to stay in. He wants to make sure it's big enough for him. Scoping out the bed. Yeah. Yeah.

And how's he holding up? I'm so proud of him. He is still working very, very hard to keep his spirits up. And we try as best we can to support him from here. May I ask about this news that you got this week? News that I know was not welcome, that his pre-trial detention has been extended again for a fifth time. How are you, how are your parents processing that? Honestly, it was devastating news. He don't want to believe that he's going to be in prison over a year, but we have no choice. We just have to keep pushing forward. As far as negotiations, that is a conversation between governments, and the case is opaque for us.

So we just have to trust that the White House is working incredibly hard, and they're taking this very seriously, and that they're going to do whatever it takes to get Evan home. I want to ask about the tributes to Evan this week to mark the one-year anniversary of his arrest. We heard a little bit there from the read-a-thon at the Wall Street Journal. There was also an international swim in solidarity, journalists from all over the world swimming at 10 different Brighton beaches, because I guess Evan loves Brighton Beach. Which one, the one in New York or UK or where? New York. Our grandparents lived there. So we would visit them a couple of times a year. We'd drive from Princeton to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, eat a lot of Russian food and spend time with our grandparents.

What's it like to watch something like that? Journalists diving in all over the world to honor your brother. I'm so touched. My family, we're so, so grateful. I know it's not easy. I've seen some runs too, and I heard that some of the water is very frigid. So I just have to say thank you so much to everyone who's doing everything they can for Evan. Does Evan share when he corresponds with you, aside from his designs on your guest bedroom, does he share what he wants to do when he's out? I know that I personally want a vacation with just us, just my immediate family, just to get away from everything, spend some time together. But the rest is up to Evan. And we trust that he's going to do what's best for him. Yeah. Does he talk about journalism, how he sees that in his life going forward? You know, I have a hunch he will go back to that. But no, we personally don't talk about that. We just keep things light. Still sending him celebrity gossip. I'm asking him.

Important to keep up, yes. Absolutely. And recently I've been asking if it's okay if I see the Dune sequel. He really loves the first one, and I feel guilty about seeing the second one while he can't. So I'm still waiting for an answer for that. Got it. Well, Danielle, before I let you go, I want people to hear Evan's voice. And I want to play just a little piece from an interview that I did with him. This was in 2019.

He was with the Moscow Times then. And the reason I was interviewing him, of all things, was he was reporting about a journalist who'd been arrested in Russia. I don't know who Ivan Gulanov is. Tell me a little bit about him and his work that might have set this chain of arrested in Russia. I don't know who Ivan Gulunov is. Tell me a little bit about him and his work that might have set this chain of events in motion. So Ivan, for the past about 10 years, has been one of Russia's foremost investigative journalists. And a recent story that he was working on that he did in 2018... So, Daniel Gershkovich, I wanted to play that

because the headline that day was that charges had been dropped against this other journalist, Ivan Golunov. He had been released. And I just wanted to say on behalf of my many fellow journalists that I hope similar news will come soon for your brother. Thank you so much. It means the world. I hope so, too. I hope we can get that happy ending soon.

Daniel Gershkovich is the oldest sister of The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia one year ago this week. Thank you. Thank you so much. This episode was produced by Mark Rivers. Ted Meeban was our engineer. It was edited by Christopher Intagliata and Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.