Tomorrow marks the unhappy one-year anniversary of the detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia on the bogus charge of espionage. On March 28, 2023, he was arrested while on a reporting trip for The Wall Street Journal in the city of Yekaterinburg; he has been held in Moscow, without trial, ever since.

He is one of Vladimir Putin’s hostages . . . an innocent man, being held as a commodity to be traded at some unknown future time in exchange for an unspecified Russian convicted criminal in the United States or one of its allied countries.

And on Tuesday, just two days before this anniversary, a Moscow court ordered an extension until at least June 30th of his detention, again without trial. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended the hearing, and offered the following statement to reporters outside of the courthouse:

“The accusations against Evan are categorically untrue. They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction. No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.” [AP World News, March 26, 2024.]

And there it is: life in Russia today, where no one is safe from the diabolical whims of Vladimir Putin. Evan Gershkovich continues to occupy his rightful place on my list of HOSTAGES who must be brought home. We know that official negotiations have been underway for some time; let us continue to hope and pray for their success . . . sooner, rather than later.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/27/24