No Surprise And No Coincidence As Reporter Snatched

Michael Hedges March 31, 2023 - Follow on Twitter

Being a foreign correspondent once brought considerable professional envy. “Far away places with strange sounding names…”. Even local reporters had cachet. This is gone, mostly, as gangsters, mobsters, tyrants and lunatics use every possible method to intimidate not only critics but regular observers. A new twist to this is even more alarming, and hardly surprising.

Sometime Wednesday evening Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) detained Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg, reported local newspaper Vechernye Vedomosti (March 29). Near the well-known burger restaurant Bukowski Grill agents hustled Mr. Gershkovich into a minibus, pulling a sweater over his head, and drove off. He had engaged a local fixer to secure interviews with persons knowledgeable about the Wagner Group mercenaries and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

He was whisked to Moscow for an appearance at the Lefortovo court, which hears treason and espionage cases. A statement released by the FSB said the agency had “stopped the illegal activities of Wall Street Journal correspondent, an American citizen Evan Gershkovich. On behalf of the United States, the journalist was collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitute a state secret.” Mr. Gershkovich has held official journalist accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry since 2017.

Financial and business publications, their correspondents as well, are generally given favorable treatment for all the obvious reasons. Even tyrants need to assuage investment bankers. A very unflattering story in the WSJ (March 28), co-written by Mr. Gershkovich, headlined “Russia Economy Is Coming Undone.” It was his last report from Russia. The arrest was “no coincidence,” wrote Russian affairs watcher Michael McFaul on social media (March 29). The Wall Street Journal is published by by Dow Jones & Company, a subsidiary of News Corporation, principally owned by the Murdoch family.

Russian Federation officials locked into the spying charge. "The only thing I can say is that, as far as we know, he was caught red-handed,” said presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Interfax (March 31). He added that WSJ journalists and others engaged in “normal journalistic activities” were welcome to remain in the Russian Federation. “This is not the first time that the status of a foreign correspondent, journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in our country to cover up activities that are not journalism,” offered Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova. Her boss, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered a more ominous tone about “removing the vestiges of US dominance in the world,” quoted by RAI Novosti (March 31).

Reports of the arrest took over the breaking news chyron early Thursday until other news rocked the news cycle. "Russia's arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich escalates the Kremlin's habit of taking Americans hostage, and it's more evidence that Russia is divorcing itself from the community of civilized nations,” wrote the WSF editorial board (March 31). “The Kremlin has cowed domestic reporting in Russia, so foreign correspondents are the last independent sources of news. Thuggish leaders keep doing thuggish things if they think they will pay no price.”

“We are deeply troubled by Russia’s detention of Evan Gershkovich, a respected Wall Street Journal reporter whose coverage of Russia has been fair and accurate at a time when the world needs reliable information,” said a joint editorial from the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico and Bloomberg News (March 31). “Evan’s detention is intended to have a chilling effect on independent journalism and deprive the public of essential news.” International press freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) (March 30) asked for “clarification” of the arrest “that is unprecedented since the Cold War. He must be allowed access to a lawyer and he must be released.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in the Russian Federation

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom