After Russia’s alarming arrest and detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in March 2023, he quickly became one of the most pivotal geopolitical figures globally. Gershkovich began working at the Journal’s bureau in Moscow covering the war in Ukraine in 2022. While reporting on the Wagner military group in March of 2023, he was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service on charges of espionage, making him the first American journalist to have been arrested on those charges since the Cold War.
Though both the Wall Street Journal and the U.S. Government have vehemently denied the allegations against him and have called for his immediate release, Gershkovich continues to be detained in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, a jail infamous for its severe and isolating conditions. While ambassadors from the U.S. and the United Nations work on securing his release, Gershkovich’s courage in reporting the truth about Russia, despite the serious risk to himself, has stood as a powerful symbol for free speech while Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues. As asserted in an official statement by the U.S. Department of State, “Journalism is not a crime.”
