Long before his arrest, US reporter lamented that many friends in Russia were being locked up

Associated Press

In early 2022, Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal wrote on social media that “reporting on Russia is now also a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years.” A year later, he was the one locked up after he was arrested in March 2023 on charges of spying that his employer and the U.S. government have denounced as fabricated. On Friday, he was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged the 32-year-old journalist was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained. He was the first American taken into custody in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War.