Today marks one year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russian security services while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg. He is accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
He has been detained in a small cell in the notorious Lefortovo Prison on charges of espionage. His family, his employer, and the State Department all deny the charges, as does Evan. All detentions of American citizens are noteworthy and their stories deserve attention until they come home. In this case, it is important to keep Evan’s detention in the headlines because he is the first journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.
Authoritarian dictators often clamp down on journalists and Putin is no different. He shows signs of increasing such behavior. A second American journalist, a duel Russian-American citizen, Alsu Kurmasheva,…
