Lawyers meet with Evan Gershkovich, detained WSJ reporter, in Moscow prison

Attorneys met with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Tuesday at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow as the U.S. is pushing to secure the journalist’s release and label him as wrongfully detained.

Emma Tucker, the editor-in-chief of the Journal, said in an email update that Gershkovich’s health was good and she was “encouraged” the legal team could visit him.

Tucker said they were pursuing a legal avenue to free Gershkovich, who is being held on charges of espionage, along with other strategies that include talks with U.S. government officials.

The visit comes as the Biden administration is preparing to declare Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, according to CNN, which would open up new resources to secure his release.

The designation, expected to be made in the coming days, follows an internal review of the journalist’s arrest, CNN reported. The State Department’s office of hostage affairs will work on his case once the designation is official.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing on Tuesday that the case was a priority for President Biden.

“These charges are ridiculous. Evan is not a spy, Evan has never been a spy,” she said. “This is a case that is a priority for the president.”

Over the weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his counterpart in Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and called for the immediate release of Gershkovich.

Gerskovich, 31, was arrested last week in the city of Yekaterinburg by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor of the Soviet-era KGB. His arrest marks the first detention of a U.S. journalist in Moscow since the Cold War.

Gershkovich is accused of spying on behalf of the U.S. government to collect a state secret on the military, charges of which the Wall Street Journal has vehemently rejected. More than 30 media outlets and press freedom groups have also called for his immediate release.

A statement carried by Tucker and Almar Latour, the CEO of Journal publisher Dow Jones, on Tuesday said Gershkovich “is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world.”

“We stand with Evan and continue to call for his immediate release,” the statement reads. “His imprisonment is wholly unjustified and an attack on a free press. We are doing everything in our power to bring Evan home safely and will not rest until he is reunited with his family.”

In the email update, Tucker said she met with Gershkovich’s family on Sunday, who were “relieved to know we finally have contact with Evan.”

Gershkovich was stationed with the Journal’s Moscow bureau and had worked for the paper since January 2022, covering the war in Ukraine and other issues. He most recently wrote about Russia’s economic struggles from western sanctions.