Wall Street Journal's Paul Beckett says Evan Gershkovich's road to freedom is highly complicated
Wall Street Journal editor Paul Beckett discusses his work behind-the-scenes to help secure the freedom of his colleague Evan Gershkovich, who's been held in Russia since March.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich marked 300 days in a Moscow prison being held on dubious espionage charges on Monday.
"300 days is 300 too long for Evan to be wrongfully detained by Russia. Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and any portrayal to the contrary is fiction," Wall Street Journal assistant editor Paul Beckett told Fox News Digital.
The Wall Street Journal had Beckett, who previously served as Washington bureau chief for the paper, concentrate solely on efforts to free Gershkovich, the 32-year-old American son of Soviet immigrants whose plight has attracted international attention and calls for his release.
"We're encouraged that both the US and Russia have recently indicated they want to do a deal, and we hope it will lead to a rapid conclusion," Beckett said.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing to consider an appeal against his pre-trial detention on espionage charges in Moscow, Russia, October 10, 2023. (REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/ File Photo)
Russia seized Gershkovich last March 29 while he was reporting in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, and accused him of espionage. Gershkovich, the U.S. government and the Wall Street Journal all deny the spying charges, and he's been declared wrongfully detained by the Biden administration. He has been denied all his appeals and faces a likely conviction.
Gershkovich has since been held in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow for nearly a year, spending roughly 90% of his day in a small cell, according to the WSJ.
Gershkovich's parents Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich detailed how their son is holding up earlier this month during an interview with WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker.
"He’s doing the best he can under the circumstances, and the circumstances are very hard," Milman said, adding that Lefortovo prison is "basically designed to isolate you and break you down."
"He doesn’t see daylight, it’s hard," his mother continued. "But he’s fighting, he’s answering letters, we get a letter from him every week… he gets to read and he requests literature that he wants to read, he keeps his spirits up and his letter are humorous, make me laugh. He tries hard, I think, for us. We are worried about him, he is worried about us."
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy has visited Gershkovich in prison and kept his family updated on his condition. His friends have also told Fox News Digital he's kept his sense of humor and tried to stay upbeat while languishing in custody.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was denied an appeal last week as he continued to be wrongly detained by Russia while facing espionage charges that the paper vehemently blasted as "categorically false." (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed calls for the release of Gershkovich, as well as former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, at his annual press conference in December. He suggested an "agreement" was possible to return them both but said the "American side must hear us and make an appropriate decision, one that suits the Russian side."
Beckett has previously said he had no insight as to why Gershkovich was targeted by Russia, besides simply being someone the U.S. would very much want back.
"From our perspective, really, Evans was just the next in line for taking somebody with the prospect of having leverage over the U.S. and getting somebody that mattered to them back," he told Fox News Digital last year.