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Mad Vlad Putin continues to poke a finger in the eye of Joe Biden. A Russian court ruled today that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention will be extended by two months.
Make no mistake about it. This is a slap against Joe Biden and the perception of weakness that he projects to the world. Gershkovich is the first American journalist arrested in Russia and held on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War. The U.S. State Department has designated his detention as a wrongful detention. The hearing on Friday was a closed hearing at Lefortovo District Court. The Federal Security Service (FSB) requested that Evan’s detention continue until March 30 as he awaits trial. The judge granted that request. This is the fourth extension since he was taken into custody last March.
Evan, his family, and the Wall Street Journal deny he is a spy. This extension guarantees he will spend a full year in custody before he goes to trial, maybe longer. He is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who works out of the news outlet’s Moscow bureau. He is a 32-year-old American citizen. His parents immigrated separately to the U.S. as young adults before they met and married. Evan and his sister were born in America. Evan speaks fluent Russian.
He was detained while on a reporting trip and accused of being a spy. This happened despite the fact that he is authorized to be a journalist in Russia.
The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones released a statement after the court’s decision.
“It is chilling and outrageous that Evan has now spent 10 months of his life in prison, simply for doing his job,” the companies said.
