Russia extends journalist Evan Gershkovich’s detention after nearly a year

A Moscow court on Tuesday extended the pretrial detention for The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich until the end of June.

After hearing from prosecutors, Gershkovich’s detention was extended until June 30, according to state-run news outlet TASS.

Gershkovich has already been detained for almost a year following his March 29, 2023, arrest in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Russian officials have charged Gershkovich, an American citizen, with collecting state secrets on the Russian military on behalf of the U.S. government.

The U.S., press freedom groups and Gershkovich’s employer at The Wall Street Journal consider him wrongfully detained. His parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, attended President Biden’s State of the Union on Capitol Hill earlier this month.

Almar Latour, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Emma Tucker, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, said the court appearances are “baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is, and his wrongful detention remains unconscionable.”

“As we take this week to recognize the difficult one year mark and reach as many people as possible with Evan’s story, we will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release,” they wrote in a statement. “The attention and interest around one year is heartening, and we all must be sure to keep Evan front and center for as long as he is wrongfully detained.”

The Biden administration has been working on securing a prisoner swap to free him, but a deal has yet to emerge.

Complicating the discussion is the fact that Russia is also holding other American prisoners, including former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been held since 2018, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested last October.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a December interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he hopes to find a deal soon to free Whelan and Gershkovich.