PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey-born reporter Evan Gershkovich, considered wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, will remain in a Russian jail pending trial, according to a Moscow court ruling this week. However, both a colleague and a childhood friend of Gershkovich say he’s in good spirits.
The Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against Gershkovich's detention filed by his lawyers, upholding an earlier ruling to keep him in custody until the end of March.
Gershkovich, 32, was reporting for the Wall Street Journal in Moscow in March 2023 when he was apprehended by the Russian Federal Security Service and charged with espionage. The U.S. considered Gershkovich wrongfully detained soon after the arrest.
“What's happened over the last year is a series of pretrial detentions that the Russian authorities have sought from a Moscow court. It's been no surprise to us that all of our appeals have been rejected,” said Wall Street Journal assistant editor Paul Beckett.
“Since then, he's been in the notorious Lefortovo prison in the middle of Moscow. It's known for its determination to isolate and disorient its inmates.”
Beckett told the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists, in a panel discussion on Wednesday, that he is able to see Gershkovich once a week through lawyers.
“He works very hard at staying OK. He exercises. He writes letters and we're very grateful for the fact that he has maintained his equilibrium all this time,” Beckett said.
Gershkovich is an American with Russian heritage. His childhood friend Michael Van Itallie says he was working his dream job when he was arrested.
“He was sort of born to cover the story of Russia and translate what's going on, on the ground there and how Russians are feeling to the world. It's a huge loss,” Van Itallie said. Still, he believes Gershkovich’s sense of humor is helping his loved ones.
“It feels like sometimes that he's comforting his friends and his family, even though obviously it's him that's going through this terrible situation.”
That comes out in Gershkovich’s communication with his family, according to Beckett, especially with his sister Danielle.
“They trade celebrity gossip and they share funny lines from ‘It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,’ which I think is one of their favorite shows,” said Beckett, “and I think they're incredibly proud of how he is holding up.”
In December, the State Department said Russia rejected several proposals to free Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in 2020.
Speaking in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready to negotiate a deal to exchange Gershkovich and hinted that Moscow wants the release of a Russian imprisoned in Germany.
Putin charged that Gershkovich “was caught red-handed when he was secretly getting classified information,” while adding that "there are certain conditions that are being discussed between special services. I believe an agreement can be reached.”
He pointed to a man imprisoned in a “U.S.-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya. Putin didn’t mention names but appeared to refer to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany after being convicted of the 2019 killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity.
German judges said Krasikov acted on the orders of Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity and passport and resources to carry out the killing.
German officials have refused to comment when asked if there had been any effort by Russia to secure a swap of Krasikov and Gershkovich.