Washington Sees Evan Gershkovich As A "Bargaining Chip": Report (Ximage@playbookdc)
Danielle Gershkovich is waiting for her younger brother Evan, the Wall Street Journal reporter. Evan was arrested by Russian authorities last year. He is the first US journalist to be arrested in Russia since the Cold War over the charges of espionage. Talking to BBC, Danielle said it has been a very difficult one year. She said the uncertainty of things are very hard to deal with.
On a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, 1000 miles away from Moscow, Evan was arrested by FSB, domestic security service of Russia. The Russian authorities said that Evan was “caught red handed” with “classified information”.
During the last 12 months Evan has appeared in courts for few times, and media was allowed in the court room for a brief period to film him. When Evan appeared in court this week, no journalists were let in, and no explanation was given. The Moscow City Courthouse filmed him and released a footage which is no longer than 6 seconds. The footage showed him inside the courtroom in a glass cage.
Editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker called the issue a “total and utter nonsense”, quoted BBC. She said, people were wary about reporting from Russia, and many news outlets started o withdrew correspondents from Moscow. Evan was based in London and would go to Russia two or three times a week to report on Russian economy in the backdrop of Ukraine war.
After his arrest, Evan was kept in Moscow’s Lefortovo jail. The prison held some of Russia’s most high-profile inmates including political prisoners and dissidents. The prison is notorious for its torture and execution during the time of the Great Terror Joseph Stalin.
Washington designated Evan as “wrongfully detained”. US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said the institution that Evan was taken to insinuate that he was “somehow engaging in some kind of criminal activity is just flat-out false”. Russian President, Vladimir Putin last month said that he would like the US journalist to go home, but there is a “but”.
According to BBC, from the unsubtle hints that Moscow has been dropping, it is clear that it needs something or rather someone in return of Evan. That someone is thought to be FSB security service officer, Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence.
Tucker said, it is “pretty clear that [Evan] was picked up in order to be traded”. She said Russia is stockpiling Americans in its jails in order to trade them at later date. She said Putin is holding him as a bargaining chip.
