Before we jump in and get started just a housekeeping note. Last night in comments eclare was upset that I posted immediately after Anne Laurie posted, thereby bigfooting her and her post. Leaving aside that this is Balloon Juice, my curt reply, and several other piling on on my behalf, I want to make sure there’s a bit of explanation here. First, feeling like I’ve bigfooted someone else’s post is fine. Expressing it in the comments is fine. Please, everyone, we have enough stuff to actually argue about, let’s just let that go. eclare you are welcome to comment when and how you like, my apologies for being abrupt. Second, I do these nightly updates on top of my day job, which as you all know, because it’s in my Balloon Juice bio, is working as a national security professional. I don’t discuss that work here for a number or reasons, but basically I finish my day’s work and then start on these updates, which usually take somewhere between an hour to two hours to put together from start to finish. This is like adding two hours of work to my work day or two hours of work adjacent/related stuff to my work day. I made a commitment that as long as my boss says it’s okay to keep doing them, that I will make sure that we can all stand vigil every evening or night (or morning for our antipodean and Asian friends) to the Ukrainian’s defense of their state, their society, their culture, their families, their friends, their lives, and, quite frankly, the rest of us that live in what is usually defined as the Western world. Quite frankly it is the least we can do. But because I’m doing these on top of my full time work I have no time to do posts on anything else, no time to check into comment threads on other posts. Frankly, unless one of you or one of my fellow front pagers has asked if I saw post X or comment Y, I have not looked at or read another post on this site in 13 months and six days. I just don’t have the time, the energy, or the bandwidth. I have no idea who has posted what when, what posts are scheduled to publish at what times. My life is work; these updates; working out to stay fit; the doggos including nightly two mile 2o minute pace walks with them; a bit of reading or watching rugby or hockey to relax and divert myself a bit; and sleep. Up at 0 Dark Hundred every morning, asleep by 10(ish) every night. That’s it. So if I bigfoot your favorite front pager, now you know why; it is not intentional nor malicious. And for those that keep thanking me: thank you for the kind words, you are most welcome, I look forward to the day I don’t have to do these because Ukraine has won the war. Off to walk the dogs…
The Russians arrested Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich on charges of espionage:
The Lefortovo court has ordered Evan Gershkovich to be put under arrest. https://t.co/dYihkWlcVf
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 30, 2023
The Associated Press has details: (emphasis mine)
Russia’s security service arrested an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations and demanded his release.
Evan Gershkovich, 31, was detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, about 1,670 kilometers (1,035 miles) east of Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service accused him of trying to obtain classified information.
Known by the acronym FSB, the service is the top domestic security agency and main successor to the Soviet-era KGB. It alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on instructions from the American side to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitutes a state secret.”
The Journal “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the newspaper said. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
The sweeping campaign of repression is unprecedented since the Soviet era. Activists say it often means the very profession of journalism is criminalized, along with the activities of ordinary Russians who oppose the war.
Earlier this week, a Russian court convicted a father over social media posts critical of the war and sentenced him to two years in prison. His 13-year-old daughter was sent to an orphanage.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.
At a hearing Thursday, a Moscow court quickly ruled that Gershkovich would be kept behind bars pending the investigation.
While previous American detainees have been freed in prisoner swaps, a top Russian official said it was too early to talk about any such deal.
In Washington, the Biden administration said it had spoken with the Journal and Gershkovich’s family. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the arrest “in the strongest terms” and urged Americans to heed government warnings not to travel to Russia.
The State Department was in direct touch with the Russian government and seeking access to Gershkovich, Jean-Pierre said. The administration has no “specific indication” that journalists in Russia are being targeted, she said.
Gershkovich, who covers Russia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as a correspondent in the Journal’s Moscow bureau, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage. Prominent lawyers noted that past investigations into espionage cases took a year to 18 months, during which time he may have little contact with the outside world.
The FSB noted that Gershkovich had accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, but ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that Gershkovich was using his credentials as cover for “activities that have nothing to do with journalism.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It is not about a suspicion, it is about the fact that he was caught red-handed.”
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian defense attorney who has worked on many espionage and treason cases, said Gershkovich’s case is the first criminal espionage charge against a foreign journalist in post-Soviet Russia.
“That unwritten rule not to touch accredited foreign journalists, has stopped working,” said Pavlov, a member of the First Department legal aid group.
Pavlov said the case against Gershkovich was built to give Russia “trump cards” for a future prisoner exchange and will likely be resolved “not by the means of the law, but by political, diplomatic means.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov ruled out any quick swap.
“I wouldn’t even consider this issue now because people who were previously swapped had already served their sentences,” Ryabkov said, according to Russian news agencies.
Much more at the link!
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:
War for Ukraine Day 400: Russia Takes a HostagePost + Comments (90)