Evan Gershkovich recounts his arrest in Russia: I realized I had been set up

American journalist Evan Gershkovich recalls quickly realizing that his arrest in Russia was part of a setup and that the espionage charges were intended to turn him into a bargaining chip in a broader political game.

In an interview with Radio 4’s “Today” program, he said that in March 2023 he was at a restaurant in Yekaterinburg, where he was waiting to meet a source for a story. There, a group of about six masked men entered the establishment and approached his table.

“I think we reserved that table,” they told him, according to Gershkovich. He described the moment as unusual, but said that, in hindsight, the way the intervention was carried out appeared to have been chosen to leave him with no opportunity to react.

A short time later, he was told that he was being arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and was being accused of espionage. “That’s the moment you realize it’s something really serious. When it’s the FSB, you know it’s been planned,” he said.

Gershkovich said that the absence of questioning and torture helped him understand what was happening. In his view, this convinced him that he was not being treated as a genuine foreign agent, but as someone who could be used in a future deal.

“I had been set up and this case had been fabricated so that I could be a valuable hostage, a chess piece in a larger game,” the journalist said. He added that this conclusion brought him some relief, as he believed his detention would not last for decades.

Gershkovich was arrested on March 29, 2023, while working in Moscow as a correspondent for “The Wall Street Journal.” He had been living in Russia since 2017. In July 2024, a Russian court sentenced him to 16 years in prison for espionage. He and “The Wall Street Journal” denied the allegations, which the U.S. government called baseless.

After about 16 months in pretrial detention, the journalist was released in August 2024 as part of a major prisoner exchange between Russia, the United States, Germany and other countries. Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was also released in the same deal.

Among those returned to Russia was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a former Chechen commander in Berlin. Gershkovich said that during his imprisonment, he had thought such an exchange could be the path to his release.

On the day he was arrested, he had traveled to Yekaterinburg, about 1,600 kilometers east of Moscow, to gather information for a story. There, he met with a person he considered a potential source, but according to his account, that person disappeared into the crowd as soon as the FSB agents intervened.

The arrest prompted strong international reactions. Media organizations and political institutions in the United States and other countries called for his release. Then-U.S. President Joe Biden said bringing Gershkovich home was among his highest priorities.