Despite spending nearly one year in a Russian jail on spying charges widely viewed as bogus, American journalist Evan Gershkovich is still doing all right, the U.S. Embassy said after Ambassador Lynne Tracy visited him on Thursday.
“Next week marks a year since his unlawful detention by the Russian authorities,” the embassy said in a post in Russian on its Telegram channel. “Evan remains strong and resilient, but it is a tragedy that he is awaiting trial for a crime he did not commit.”
A Russia correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, and accused of espionage. He, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny the charges against him. The State Department has also declared him wrongfully detained.
“He’s an innocent man, and we’re counting on the U.S. government to get him home,” Paul Beckett told VOA. Beckett is an assistant editor at the Journal and is leading the newspaper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release.
Russian authorities have repeatedly rejected Gershkovich’s appeals of his pretrial detention. If convicted of espionage, the 32-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously suggested that Moscow would be willing to release Gershkovich in exchange for a Russian assassin jailed in Germany.
Gershkovich’s pretrial detention is set to expire on March 30. A hearing is expected next week, which will likely determine whether Gershkovich’s pretrial detention will again be extended or trial proceedings will begin, according to Jason Conti, general counsel at Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal.
“The legal case is not where this is going to get resolved. It’s obviously going to get resolved in diplomatic channels,” Conti said at an event Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington commemorating the anniversary of Gershkovich’s jailing.
At the event, Gershkovich’s sister Danielle spoke about the emotional toll the past year has taken on their family.
“This has been a really difficult year for the family. It’s just a lot of uncertainty, and we just have to take it day by day,” she said.
Gershkovich is one of two American journalists jailed in Russia. Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national, has been detained since October 2023. She’s facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly failing to register as a so-called foreign agent and spreading false information about the Russian army.
Kurmasheva is an editor on the Tatar-Bashkir service of VOA sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She and her employer reject the charges against her.
