Wall Street Journal reporter sentenced to 16-year prison term in Russia

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stood in a glass cage on Friday in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles east of Moscow, as the Russian court sentenced him to a 16-year prison term on espionage charges. 

The US government and the Wall Street Journal have called the process a “sham trial,” vehemently denying the charges. Since Gershkovich’s detention in March 2023, US President Joe Biden has said that bringing him and other Americans home is a top priority.

“I give you my word as a Biden, we’re not going to give up until we get them home, all of them, all of them,” US President Joe Biden said at April’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

When asked about Gershkovich earlier this week at a press conference in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “special services” in the US and Russia have been discussing a potential exchange. 

But he also said Russia has “irrefutable evidence” that Gershkovich was involved in espionage activities. Russia’s prosecutors claim that Gershkovich “gathered secret information” on orders from the CIA. However, they’ve presented no evidence to support this claim.

Russia has been targeting journalists, and clamping down on free speech, especially since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since his arrest Gershkovich has received outspoken support from across the globe. 

“We were in such shock when this whole thing happened,” Ella Milman, Gershkovich’s mother said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “At first, it was hard to accept even, but then it was just like [an] avalanche and it gave us so much energy, the letters, support for Evan, all of it, it’s wonderful.”

“It feels a little bit like you’re sharing the burden with a lot of people and it’s huge,” said Mikhail Gershkovich, Evan’s father.

One of those advocating for Gershkovich is Pjotr Sauer, a foreign correspondent with the Guardian. They met in 2018, around the time when they both started reporting in Russia. Sauer says that since Gershkovich’s arrest, they’ve become even closer.

They communicate through letters, and although those letters are censored, Sauer updates Gershkovich on his life, gossip and sports, while Gershkovich tells him about the books he’s reading and his experience in Russian jail.

“On my birthday, he made sure that I got a letter from him, and for other friends he made sure that they would get their flowers on their birthday, and he would ask us to do it,” Sauer said. “Despite his difficult circumstances, he thinks about us, and what’s going on in our world.”

Despite this, Gershkovich is still highly isolated from the outside world. He spends most of his days in a small jail cell with just one other cellmate.

Sauer said that for most political prisoners in Russia, an exchange is usually their best shot at freedom. Exchanges are almost only negotiated after a sentence is delivered.

Gershkovich is not the only American in this situation.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan has been detained in Russia on trumped-up charges since 2018. Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also been in Russian custody since last October.

Kurmasheva was charged with “failing to register as a foreign agent” and spreading false information about Russia’s military.

Her husband Pavel Butorin said that she’s being held in a Russian jail “because of her American citizenship.”

Like in Gershkovich’s case, Kurmasheva’s trial has been closed to the public, so no evidence has been released publicly.

Butorin and his daughters are in Washington, DC, advocating for Kurmasheva to be designated as“wrongfully detained,” which would commit the US government to work towards her release.

“Alsu is not just a number, not a statistic. We are a family, a suffering family — a family that cannot rely on the Russian legal system for justice. We can only rely on our own government to help us bring Alsu back,” Butorin said.

Kurmasheva’s 16-year-old daughter Bibi says that she has exchanged a few letters with her mother, but they haven’t been allowed to speak on the phone since her detention. The only way Butorin and Bibi have been able to see Kurmasheva is through photos and videos taken by journalists before and after court hearings.

“My sister and I have been accompanying our dad to some meetings at the Capitol, and we are there to really shine light on the fact that my mom is just a mother, and she needs her kids,” Bibi said.

Since Kurmasheva’s detention, her family has met the Gershkovichs and others who have gone through what they’re experiencing. It gives them a sense of community.

There have also been recent examples of Americans freed in prisoner exchanges with Russia.

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star arrested for possession of marijuana, was released in a prisoner swap in December 2022, less than a year after she was detained.

For Griner, the feeling of freedom didn’t hit her until she landed at home.

“Oh, not until I’m on the plane, and then once I’m on the soil, and we pulled up to that hanger, and I saw my wife and I saw the US flag hanging in that hanger, then I finally could relax,” she told PBS in May.

That’s the moment that Gershkovich, Kurmasheva and their friends and family are desperately waiting for.