The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich is a top-flight journalist, courageously reporting from Vladimir Putin’s Russia at a time when the Russian leader’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has the world’s attention intently trained on virtually every move Moscow makes.
He is not a spy.
He has, however, become a pawn in Putin’s reckless gambit against the West, a victim of the Kremlin’s willingness to resort to hostage-taking as a bludgeon against America. WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner’s nearly 10-month detention in Russia was hardly an exercise of justice, and neither is Gershkovich’s indefensible arrest on wholly unsubstantiated charges of espionage.
To report in Russia, foreign correspondents must get Kremlin permission, via accreditation and visas. In the past, correspondents in Russia have routinely encountered government threats, harassment and surveillance. In rare instances, a correspondent triggering the ire of the Kremlin faced deportation.
But, whereas Russian journalists have always been vulnerable to imprisonment simply for reporting and writing the truth, foreign correspondents have been able to do their job without being arrested.
Until now.
Gershkovich, 31, was arrested last week in Yekaterinburg, a Ural Mountains city about 800 miles east of Moscow. Russia’s main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), alleged that Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Gershkovich has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the Wall Street Journal, his employer, vehemently denied the allegations and called for its reporter’s immediate release.
Condemnation of Putin’s actions came swiftly. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced “the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress and punish journalists and civil society voices.” President Joe Biden had a simple message for the Kremlin: “Let him go.” On Monday, the European Union and NATO denounced Gershkovich’s arrest and called for his release. Several media organizations have also urged Gershkovich’s immediate release, and we join in demanding his freedom.
At the same time, we stress the importance of continuing to report on Russia and the Kremlin, even as Putin turns the screws on both domestic and foreign media.
Foreign correspondence often entails risk. Covering wars comes with the territory, as do
assignments in countries that show little if any regard for the rule of law. The tactic of charging journalists with espionage has been used before; in 2006, Tribune foreign correspondent Paul Salopek was freelancing for National Geographic when he was arrested in Sudan and accused of espionage and writing “false news.” In reality, he had entered the country without a proper visa, which usually amounts to a civil violation and results in deportation. He was locked up in a Sudanese jail for more than a month before being released.
Many Western news outlets that had a presence in Russia withdrew their staff following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Russian government’s passage of a law that made it illegal to publish what the Kremlin deemed false information about Russia’s military activities in Ukraine. Those news organizations have continued their reporting from locations outside Russia, and a few have recently sent journalists back into Russia on reporting trips.
Following Gershkovich’s arrest, each news organization undoubtedly will weigh carefully the risks of reporting within Russia. That deliberation should take into account not just the safety of their correspondents, but the safety of the local staff they rely on to enable an unvarnished, comprehensive window into what’s happening in Russia.
But now is not the time to succumb to Putin’s thuggish tactics, and allow Russia to go dark.
With the invasion, Putin altered the global landscape in a way that may lead to lasting ramifications. NATO countries on Russia’s western flank worry that a Kremlin victory in Ukraine could mean they’re next in Putin’s crosshairs. He has perilously talked of resorting to tactical nukes in the Ukrainian conflict, and he has shown a willingness to accept pariah status as the price for achieving his contemptible agenda.
Russia has become one of the world’s most important geopolitical players to understand and scrutinize, and journalism plays a vital role in that mission. It’s an endeavor that the West cannot abandon, even as it insists on immediate freedom for Evan Gershkovich.
