‘I will probably never be able to go home again’: Russian American journalist Masha Gessen on their Moscow court conviction 

Masha Gessen: A little sad because this, I mean, this was not at all a surprise. I was arrested in absentia about six months ago. There’s been a search warrant out for me. So, it doesn’t materially change my situation in any way, but it just sort of reinforces the fact that I will probably never be able to go home again.

Yeah. I mean, the last time I was in Russia was actually to report on what it felt like on the Russian side to witness the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. So, that was two and a half years ago. I was already living in exile, but I could still go back and report. This was the week that Russia started adopting all of these incredibly restrictive military censorship laws, one of which was used to “prosecute” me. I’m one of about 255 people who have either faced charges or been convicted or been actually jailed under this law that was passed two and a half years ago. But, the last thing I actually did before leaving Moscow at that time, on March 4, 2022, was go by the passport office and pick up my new 10-year Russian passport, because I wanted to make sure I had a valid passport to report on the end of “Putinism” when it happened, that I wouldn’t have to stand in line for a visa. And that’s clearly not going to happen because I don’t think the first thing they’re going to do whenever there is a change of regime is review all of these unjust and illegal sentences that they’re handing down these days.

The biggest problem for somebody like me, and I’m obviously in a privileged position compared to people who are actually physically in Russia and are serving actual prison time under these military censorship laws … is that I can’t travel to a lot of places in the world because they have extradition treaties with Russia.

It’s already been a significant change. There are a number of opportunities that I’ve passed up … writing festivals in a place like Serbia, which is not considered a safe place for a Russian dissident to travel to. There are also the security concerns. It’s not just extradition. But there are a lot of Latin American countries that I’ve never been to. There are places like South Africa, which I understand has an extradition treaty. And it’s pretty crazy … you also have to look at which airlines you fly, where their emergency landing plans may take them. But I want to stress that I’m by far not the only Russian in exile who is living with this constant threat. There are people in much more precarious positions who are really trying to get to a safer place before Russia hunts them down.

So, the case is very straightforward. I wrote a piece for The New Yorker in the summer of 2022, reporting on what was then known about war crimes in Bucha and Irpin, the western suburbs of Kyiv that had been occupied for a month in the spring of 2022. Russian authorities can’t prosecute somebody for the publication that takes place in English. It’s one of those weird legal things that they somehow observe. So, they waited for me to talk about it to a Russian YouTuber. A super popular Russian YouTuber — that interview has been viewed more than 6.5 million times. And in that interview, I talk about the war crimes in Bucha, and also how my experience of reporting on both wars in Chechnya helped me understand what had happened in Bucha. So, according to the indictment, because military censorship laws require journalists to use exclusively information supplied by the General Staff of Russia. So anything that doesn’t come from the General Staff is presumed to be invalid information, because the General Staff says that Russian troops didn’t commit war crimes. And I said that they did commit war crimes. I’m therefore guilty of “knowingly spreading false information about the Russian armed forces.”

Guilty of journalism, correct. Which is illegal. I mean, fair enough, right? They told us that journalism was illegal.

You know, it’s a tricky one because now that I’ve been through it myself and have talked to a lot of people who have been through similar experiences, I think talking about it as a badge of honor, there’s a lot of bravado in it, but that’s sort of not the dominant feeling. The dominant feeling is something more akin to nausea.

Well, you’re reminded that you’re hated by your home country. And also, the reason that they pursue these cases is quite transparent. They pursue a lot of cases against people who are living in exile and people who have been living in exile for a while. And it’s putting you on notice. It’s telling you, you know, we’re watching you, and you’re never going to be safe. That’s not a nice feeling.

Yes, all of these sentences, and especially someone who’s fairly prominent as I am in both countries, all of these sentences are to say, “We’ll go after everybody. Everybody who dares to do journalism and, again, we will go after them no matter where they are. So there’s no place in the world where you’re going to be safe.”

Well, two of my children are adults and are quite adept at following the news on their own. One of my kids is 12, and it’s difficult, right? One of the reasons that I decided to leave Russia more than ten years ago, when my middle child was 12, was that I felt it was completely untenable to ask my children to constantly be on the lookout for danger because the state was making it very clear that they were going to go after my kids. And I don’t think that our situation in the US is in any way comparable. But, you know, reminding my 12-year-old to always lock the door because the Russians may be after us is not a great feeling.