The correspondent The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich was accused of espionage

This is the first case of the arrest of a foreign journalist in modern Russia under such an article. What is known?

The Lefortovo District Court arrested the American journalist Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of espionage. According to the FSB, the US journalist collected information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, which is a state-owned complex. It is known that in Russia Gershkovich worked on the material about the Wagner PMC. "Cold" tells who Evan Gershkovich is and what is known about his arrest.

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What happened?

On March 29, the Yekaterinburg publication “Evening Vedomosti” reported that their reader saw how Bukowski Grill was delaying a person near the local restaurant: people in civilian clothes brought him to a minibus with a sweater stretched on their heads.

On the morning of March 30, it became known that the journalist of The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg. There, according to the local PR manager, Yaroslav Shirshikov, flew on March 29. Shirsshikov suggested that it was Gershkovich who could be detained near the restaurant, since they met there on this day. According to the FSB, Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex”, for which he had a criminal case of espionage. Under this article, Gershkovich threatens up to 20 years in prison.

On the afternoon of March 30, the journalist was taken to the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow, where he was elected a preventive measure - detention for one month and 29 days, that is, until May 29, 2023. After the trial, Gershkovich was brought in a hood on his head and with handcuffs fastened behind his back. According to the publication of TASS, citing a source in law enforcement agencies, the journalist’s case was marked by the “Top Secret” stamp, Gershkovich did not admit his guilt.

“As far as we know, they took him red-handed,” said Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. He did not explain what is at stake.

In The Wall Street Journal, where Gershkovich works, they said that the publication “categorically denies the FSB accusations and requires the immediate exemption of a devoted reporter case,” noting that he had the accreditation of the Russian Foreign Ministry to work in the country. The arrest of Gershkovich in the case of espionage is the first case of the arrest of a foreign journalist in the history of modern Russia under such an article.

Who is Evan Gershkovich?

31-year-old Evan Gershkovich is an American journalist who has been living and working in Russia for the past six years. He also covered the events in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries neighboring Russia. Gershkovich collaborated with The Moscow Times, Agence France-Presse and The Wall Street Journal. Recently, he wrote a lot about the war in Ukraine.

Gershkovich said that his family left the USSR to the USA in 1979, where he was born. “In Russia, Evan was presented as Ivan. He loves Russia very much, ”says Sonya Groysman, journalist of rain. According to journalist Maria Borzunova, Gershkovich - "one of the few foreign journalists who understand Russia very well."

“He constantly talked with officials, took official comments from them, and [the official representative of the Foreign Ministry Maria] Kakharov knows him perfectly as a journalist who was accredited at the Foreign Ministry, who regularly contacted her,” said Borzunova (after the detention of Gershkovich Zakharov , she said that in Yekaterinburg he was supposedly engaged in work that “was not related to journalism”) . “Those who do not know him may think that this is a seasoned foreigner. In fact, he seems to be Vanya and you will never understand that he is a foreigner. He speaks pure Russian, this is his native language, ”adds the journalist The Insider Marfa Smirnov.

The reporter The Moscow Times Peter Kozlov calls Gershkovich "a professional journalist and excellent guy." “In 2020, he and I worked together in protests in Khabarovsk, and he was one of the few Western journalists who spent a lot of time there,” Kozlov recalls. - I will not talk about everyone, but many foreign colleagues arrived for several days and left. Evan tried to figure out what had happened, talked with local residents. ” In addition to work, says Kozlov, Gershkovich traveled a lot around Russia: “He said that one went on vacation to Dagestan. I traveled there through mountain auls and villages, made friends with the locals. ”

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Evan Gershkovich was one of the few foreign journalists who continued to work in Russia. According to Borzunova, the last year Gershkovich often came there. “We even envied him that he was flying back,” says Marfa Smirnova. “Someone told him that it was dangerous, not worth it, but he was eager to go there.” “Evan risked, knowing that he could attract the attention of the security forces with one fact of his arrival. But, most likely, he was looked out for a long time, ” says Pavel Kanygin, a journalist, executive producer of the media“ continued ”.

“The Wall Street Journal was very worried about him, literally for every trip and every meeting he reported to the bureau. The publication seriously perceived the risks of working in Russia - apparently more serious than Evan himself, ”a journalist, familiar with Gershkovich and wished to remain anonymous, told the cold.

“We all perfectly understood, including Evan, what the Russian government is capable of,” says Borzunova. -As the most real bad script, we discussed that he would not extend the accreditation in Russia and at some point he simply could not come. It was impossible to imagine that he would be accused of espionage. ” Marfa Smirnova adds: “To blame him for espionage is like an 85-year-old grandmother to accuse the armed robbery of the bank. This is from the field of science fiction. "

What did Gershkovich do in Russia?

The editor-in-chief of the Yekaterinburg publication “Evening Vedomosti” Vladislav Postnikov told the Russian BBC service that the reason for the arrival of Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg was a public conflict between the governor of the region Evgeny Kuyvashev and the founder of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin. In early March, Gershkovich, together with his colleagues, had already released the text about the growing voltage between the founder of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin and the Kremlin elites.

According to the Russian journalist, the publisher of the Yekaterinburg media IT's My City, Dmitry Korzev, Gershkovich came to Yekaterinburg to write about the attitude of Russians to the war in Ukraine and the recruitment of local residents in the Wagner PMC. Journalist Maria Borzunova also says that Gershkovich worked on the text about PMCs.

Another acquaintance of Gershkovich (she asked not to give her name) told the “cold” that during previous business trips to Russia, the journalist noticed surveillance of himself. “Previously, it was too obvious: they literally followed. I know that he was very careful in choosing a car, an apartment for business trips, he understood that they could follow him. After Yekaterinburg, he planned to go to London, ”she said.

A source of Medusa said that, in addition to Yekaterinburg, Evan Gershkovich went to Nizhny Tagil. There is a defense enterprise Uralvagonzavod.

The deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region Vyacheslav Vegner told the Russian BBC service that he had discussed the recruitment of prisoners, including women, in the Wagner PMC with a journalist a week and a half ago. “He [Gershkovich] had the opinion that people were forcibly taken away,” Wegner said. “I showed him appeals, of which there are more than a thousand, appeals from all over the country: people turn to me to petition to Prigozhin so that they have the opportunity to become participants in their own.”

What will happen next to Gershkovich?

“All cases about the Stateismman and Spying are“ investigated ”by one manual,” says Yevgeny Smirnov, lawyer of the “first department”. - He will be taken to the Lefortovo pre -trial detention center, where they will interrogate for several days. I am sure that a persistent proposal will come to confess to all the acts that will be presented to him. After that, he will be in jail without connection and contacts with the outside world. If a lawyer is not allowed to go to him [not for its intended purpose], then we will not find out what exactly is charged with him. ”

The editor -in -chief of Mediazons Sergey Smirnov suggested that Evan Gershkovich was detained for the future exchange for Russian citizens detained abroad, and also to "show that Western journalists are more unsafe to work in Russia." “Most likely, the arrest of Evan is just a cynical replenishment of the“ exchange fund ”when a foreigner is taken hostage with the aim of subsequent exchange for the people needed by the Kremlin,” wrote journalist Pavel Kanygin.

According to lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov, if the journalist was really detained for the future exchange, "this inspires optimism." But at the same time, according to him, "famous detained Russians in the West is not particularly." “With such actions, the Russian government gives signals to the company and shows the“ red lines, ”the lawyer believes. - The first thing was [journalist] Ivan Safronov, when the authorities showed that it is impossible to collect and publish information about the armed forces, except for the one that was officially published. The detention of Gershkovich, perhaps, is also a similar signal. ”