One year ago Friday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich received a chilling phone call from the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. Their son, Evan, a foreign correspondent for The Journal on a reporting assignment in Russia, had missed his daily security check.
“We were hoping that this was some kind of mistake, that everything would be okay,” the elder Mr. Gerskovich recalled. But the startling reality became clear: Russian authorities had arrested Evan and charged him with spying for the US government, making him the first American reporter to be held in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.
Since his arrest, Mr Gershkovich, 32, has been held at the notorious Lefortovo maximum security prison in Moscow, the same unit that holds the people accused of this month’s deadly attack on a concert venue in the city. The newspaper and the US government have strongly denied that Mr Gershkowitz is a spy, saying he was a credentialed journalist doing his job.
On Tuesday, Mr. Gerskovich’s detention was extended for another three months. No trial date has been set.
“Every day is very difficult — every day we feel like he’s not here,” Ms Millman said. “We want him home and it’s been a year. It’s been heavy.”
Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s special envoy for hostage affairs, said the US government had “intense efforts” underway to secure Mr Gershkowitz’s release, as well as the release of another American prisoner, Paul Whelan, a veteran Marines also charged with espionage.
“Journalism is not a crime,” Mr Carstens said in a statement. “Evan Gershkovic did his job and should not have been detained by Russia.”
Recent public comments by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia about a possible prisoner exchange could be cause for some optimism, said Jay Cody, general counsel at Dow Jones, The Journal’s parent company.
In an interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson last month, Mr Putin suggested he wanted to swap Mr Gershovitch for Vadim Krashikov, a Russian citizen jailed in Germany for killing a target in a Berlin park .
Early talks between American and German officials explored whether Berlin would be willing to let the killer go if Russia freed opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny in addition to Mr. Gershkovich and Mr. Whelan. But Mr Navalny died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison last month, derailing that possibility.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that there aren’t many high-profile Russians in custody in the US, and so it makes any potential deal that much more complicated,” Mr Cody said. “I think the U.S. government has been active in their efforts to try to bring Evan home, but obviously it takes a willing partner and it takes a deal to do that.”
While in prison, Mr. Gerskovich plays a slow game of chess with his father through mail and works his way through book recommendations from friends, his parents said. He also keeps track of people’s birthdays and important events, arranging through others to send flowers, including to his mother and sister on International Women’s Day this month.
“It’s a very small, very isolated place with a small window and very little time outside,” his father said of his son’s cell. “We know it takes a lot of courage, effort and strength to stay together, exercise, meditate, read books, write letters, encourage us to stay strong and hope for the best.”
Mr. Gerskovich exchanges letters every week with his family, as well as with friends and buddies around the world. A group of his friends has set up a website where people can submit letters, which will be translated into Russian, as required by law, and sent to Mr. Gerskovich, who enjoys receiving them, his mother said.
“He’s fighting. He keeps his spirits up,” Ms Millman said.
Mr. Gershkovich grew up in Princeton, NJ, the son of Jewish immigrants who had fled the Soviet Union in the 1970s. His parents said he was curious about his Russian heritage from a young age and spoke Russian at home. She also had an interest in people and went on to study philosophy and English at Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 2014. Journalism seemed perfect.
After nearly two years as a news assistant at The New York Times, Mr. Gershkovich moved to Russia in late 2017 to work as a reporter at The Moscow Times. He had a stint with AFP before joining The Journal in January 2022, a job his parents said he loved.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Mr Gershkovic left Moscow, along with most foreign journalists, and settled in London. However, he often returned to Russia to report on travels.
The Wall Street Journal has worked hard to keep Mr. Gershkovich’s plight in the headlines, said Emma Tucker, the editor. The newsroom displays a large photo of him and his colleagues wear “Free Evan” pins. The magazine’s homepage features updates on Mr. Gershkovich’s case, and the company has organized letter-writing campaigns, social media storms and even a 24-hour readathon of Mr. Gershkovich’s reporting.
“We have to keep up the pressure,” Ms Tucker said. “We refuse to give up.”
His arrest marked a particularly chilling moment in Mr Putin’s crackdown on independent media and dissent. While hundreds of independent Russian journalists have fled the country, Mr Putin has so far not jailed any Western journalists on charges that would land them in prison.
Russian authorities arrested Mr Whelan in 2018, charging him with espionage on charges he and the US government deny. In early 2022, Russian authorities arrested basketball player Brittney Griner, accusing her of drug smuggling. She was later exchanged for a convicted arms dealer, Victor Booth, whose repatriation from an American prison had been sought for years.
Ms. Griner’s release in late 2022 and the imbalance of the exchange — a basketball player caught with some hashish oil for an arms dealer — raised concerns that Mr. Putin would target other Americans, realizing they could be used as leverage to secure high-profile, dangerous Russians caught in the West.
Mr Gershkowitz’s arrest followed a few months later. It had major implications for coverage of Russia, as many major news agencies withdrew their reporters from the country and reassessed the risk of any reporting in the region. Another journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, an American-Russian national working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was arrested in October when she traveled to Russia to visit her mother. He was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent and remains in custody.
Gulnoza Said, coordinator of the Europe and Central Asia program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in an interview that journalists in Russia now knew they were “at constant risk.”
“Prior to Evan’s case, foreign correspondents who might have been deemed too critical of Russian policies did not have their visas or accreditation extended,” Ms Said explained. “It has become clear that the Russian authorities will stop at nothing to suppress independent media.”
Mr. Gershkowitz’s parents said they spent their time keeping the Biden administration focused on him, meeting with President Biden, Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser. They traveled to Davos, Switzerland, this year for the World Economic Forum and were guests at Mr Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7, when the president said the United States was working “around the clock” to bring Mr Gershovitch Home.
“We know they’re committed and President Biden is committed, but we’d like to see a resolution as soon as possible,” Ms. Millman said.
A trial date for Mr. Gershkowitz is expected to be set in the coming months, said Mr. Cody, general counsel for Dow Jones. A trial will be held behind closed doors, with little transparency in the process.
Until then, Mr. Gershkowitz’s parents said, they continue to hope for his release.
“We have to be optimistic to keep going,” his father said. “We have no other skills to deal with this.”
Paul Sonne contributed to the report.
