WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia

The State Department on Monday officially determined that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been “wrongfully detained” by Russia — allowing the US greater authority to pressure the Kremlin to free the journalist.

The move means the State Department’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs will take over Gershkovich’s case and will have greater ability to monitor intelligence and push for regular consular access.

Gershkovich, 31, has been detained by Russia for nearly two weeks after he was arrested and accused of espionage on March 29 while reporting in the country.

The Journal and US officials have vehemently denied that he is guilty of any wrongdoing.

“Journalism is not a crime,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement Monday. “We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”

The department again demanded Russia immediately release Gershkovich as well as wrongfully detained US citizen Paul Whelan, a former Marine sentenced to 16 years in prison by Russian authorities who accused him of spying.

The Journal also pleaded for the journalist’s prompt release.

“We are doing everything in our power to support Evan and his family and will continue working with the State Department and other relevant U.S. officials to push for his release,” Emma Tucker and Almar Latour, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co. Inc., said in a joint statement Monday.

“He is a distinguished journalist and his arrest is an attack on a free press and it should spur outrage in all free people and governments around the world.”

The State Department’s decision to formally declare Gershkovich as wrongfully detained came at record speed compared to past incidents of Americans imprisoned abroad, according to the Journal.

Still journalist advocacy groups urged for an even quicker process and resolution.

“While this case has moved at a record pace, it still took almost two weeks for our government to make this determination. We must do more to streamline the process—especially as it relates to journalists,” Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said in a joint statement. “We believe it is always a wrongful detention when a journalist is held for doing their job.” 

Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed it caught the reporter “red-handed” but has not released any evidence to justify his arrest.

The Biden administration called the spy accusation “ridiculous” and noted that the journalist never worked for the US government.

Gershkovich — who is accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist there — is behind bars at Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail, a pretrial detention center run by the Federal Security Service.

He is reportedly in good health and grateful for the outpouring of support from the US and countries across the world, according to Journal lawyers representing him.

The journalist, who was raised in New Jersey by two Soviet parents, has reported on Russia for various publications for the past six years.

He is the first foreign reporter to be charged with spying in Russia since the Cold War.