Lefortovo is a notorious prison in northeast Moscow where many victims of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s were tortured and executed. Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, has been housed there for just over two weeks, and charges of espionage are expected to be brought against him on May 29th. Conditions at Lefortovo are well known and include 24-hour lighting, outdoor exercise in a small cage, and showers once a week. Gershkovich has not been allowed to meet with anyone, including American diplomats, relatives, or colleagues. His case is particularly significant because it suggests a new low in US-Russian relations. He was arrested in Yekaterinburg in the Ural region, accused of spying for the US in Uralvagonzavod, the world’s largest producer of tanks. However, Gershkovich considered himself transparent, as a reporter, and worked openly despite being followed by FSB agents. According to sources, high-ranking officials within the FSB headquarters in Moscow managed his arrest, without involving local actors. However, the decision to arrest him likely had Putin’s approval, marking an escalation in the conflict between the US and Russia.
Lefortovo is a name that gives chills in Russia.
In the infamous prison in northeastern Moscow, many of the victims of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s were tortured and executed. Later, famous prisoners such as Raoul Wallenberg and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn sat here.
For just over two weeks, Lefortovo has been “home” for Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, at least until May 29. Then charges are expected to be brought against him for espionage, a crime that can result in between 10 and 20 years in prison.
Gershkovich has not received meet anyone, not American diplomats, relatives or colleagues. But the conditions in the prison are well known: the light is on 24 hours a day, outdoor “exercise” takes place in a three square meter cage, and showers are allowed once a week.
It is, of course, neither more nor less a pity for Evan Gershkovich than for his fellow Russian prisoners, in Lefortovo or in the prison camps far to the north or east where they usually end up after being sentenced.
Like opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose health is deteriorating every day in solitary confinement. Or Ivan Safronov, a journalist the same age as Gerskhovich, who last fall was sentenced to 22 years for high treason.
Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov/AP
The case of the WSJ journalist however, is particularly significant because it marks yet another low in the relationship between Russia and the United States. Not since the days of the Cold War has the Kremlin resorted to this “weapon” – to completely sonically take an American journalist hostage.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 in Yekaterinburg in the Ural region, about 140 miles east of Moscow. According to Russian information, he is said to have spied on behalf of the United States in Uralvagonzavod, a giant factory in the nearby city of Nizhny Tagil that is the world’s largest producer of tanks.
But as a reporter, he worked completely openly, well aware that he is always being followed by FSB agents. He considered himself to have nothing to hide.
The French photographer Patrick Wackwho accompanied the American on the trip, says that they were working on reports on how the war affects Russians out in the provinces.
– We were there for four days and were surprised how smoothly everything went. We did not work incognito, many in Yekaterinburg knew we were there. It was journalism, not espionage, Wack told the BBC’s Russian service.
After the Russian attack on Ukraine last year, all foreign journalists in Russia know that at any moment they can have their accreditation revoked and be forced to leave the country – and that the authorities can find any reason to expel them. This has also happened in several cases.
At the same time, many Russian journalists have been arrested and sentenced, often for violating the new section that prohibits “disinformation about the armed forces”.
Photo: Ivan Sekretarev/AP
But foreign citizenship has appeared to provide some protection from being imprisoned. Until now.
Therefore, it sounds credible, as Bloomberg claims, that the decision to arrest Gershkovich was given the green light by Putin personally. The plan must have been initiated by “hawks” within the security service FSB.
It is not about a routine matter, but about a further escalation of the conflict level vis-à-vis the USA – after several threats from Moscow to deploy nuclear weapons, after the international court ICC’s arrest warrant against Putin, and after the Russian withdrawal from the Start-2 nuclear agreement .
With this, Russia shows that all Americans are now seen as enemies, that not even an accredited journalist is safe.
There are also other signs that the decision was sanctioned from the highest place. The Russian journalist Pyotr Kozlov writes on his blog, citing high-ranking sources in the security service, that everything surrounding Gershkovich was managed entirely from the FSB’s headquarters in Moscow, without involving local actors.
– In operations like this, you don’t involve the regions. Especially as the journalist was seen as a military target by the FSB, he is an American citizen. This is a heavy case, and therefore it was handled by the military counterintelligence department of the FSB, a source told Kozlov.
Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP
According to several other of Kozlov’s sources, the important thing about Gershkovich is not his profession, but that he is precisely American. According to a high-ranking person, it is the beginning of a campaign aimed at driving American “enemies” out of Russia:
– They basically have nothing to do here anymore. The US has long been a party to the conflict, sending tanks to Ukraine. Therefore, it is best that all Americans get out of here. And Russians should go home from the US. We are getting closer and closer to war and then contacts must be minimized, says the source.
If this is true is it natural that Putin himself has given the go-ahead to set an example with the WSJ journalist. At least that he has listened to those advisers who are prepared to maximize the confrontation with Washington.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied that the president had anything to do with the arrest, claiming that it “falls entirely under the authority of the security services.”