To think that all Cold War spying efforts were over is something that President Vladmir Putin of Russia could never believe. Evan Gershkovich, a 31 year old American journalist and reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was recently arrested on March 29, 2023 by the FSB (Russian successor to the Soviet KGB) on a charge of espionage, the practice of spying, with no real evidence. Espionage is a serious crime and in Russia can lead to an imprisonment of up to 20 years. Gershkovich becomes the first American journalist to be arrested on this charge since the Cold War.
Gershkovich moved to Moscow in October 2017 and for the past almost 6 years, he has been living peacefully working for various news outlets and in January 2022, he started working for the Wall Street Journal. He was arrested while on his reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, he was simply just doing his job. He is currently being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison with little to none access to the outside world. This arrest represents an assault on freedom of press.
Due to this false charged arrest, the United States Senate’s Democratic and Republican leaders called for Russia to free Gershkovich. President Joe Biden and other senior officials in the administration have also been heavily pushing and calling for Gershkovich’s release.
In further response to this, there are some policy-based approaches that could be made. For example, the United States could use diplomatic pressure or international legal action. For diplomatic pressure, the US could include public statements, private meetings, and other forms of communication to pressure the Russian government. For the international legal action, the US government could work with other international organizations such as the United Nations to bring legal action to the Russian government for violating international laws related to freedom of the press and human rights.
Overall, this false charged arrest of Evan Gershkovich is a big topic in current events through him being falsely charged with espionage and the representation of the assault on the freedom of press. Although there are some policy responses being made currently with President Biden calling Russia for his release, there are some others that could be taken into account that could be helpful as well.
Ayan Kumar's Blog 