Wall Street Journal reporter and American citizen Evan Gershkovich marked one year in captivity as a hostage of Russia on March 29.
Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg on highly dubious espionage charges last year and has been held without trial or evidence presented against him ever since. Russian courts have rejected a string of appeals from Gershkovich’s legal team against his unlawful imprisonment.
The WSJ mourned Gershkovich’s “stolen year” on Friday:
Evan has lost 12 months of normal existence as a kinetic and curious 32-year-old, a year he should have been jetting around Europe and the U.S. between groups of friends, his family and his reporting trips to Russia.
There has been a burst of weddings and engagements of friends from high school and college. He has missed a year of monumental changes and intrigue in Russian reporting—a cornerstone of many of his friendships with reporters and a key part of his identity. He has missed a year of Arsenal, the Mets and the Jets—his favorite teams. He has missed the final episodes of “Succession,” the finale of “Ted Lasso” and the 16th season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
“A year is a long time. I feel like a lot has happened in my life,” said his friend and onetime Brooklyn roommate Mike Van Itallie. “To just contrast that with Evan being in the same confined place for literally that entire period of time—it’s pretty tough to fathom.”
Gershkovich is confined to a cell in Moscow’s grim Levortovo prison, formerly a KGB facility. He is generally required to stand in a cage when Russian courts periodically drag him in to extend his detention again and again – five times at last count.
