U.S. ambassador to Russia says jailed reporter Evan Gershkovich is in good health

MOSCOW —  U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on Monday made her third visit to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been behind bars in Russia since March on charges of espionage.

Tracy, who last visited Gershkovich in early July, reported that the 31-year-old “appears in good health and remains strong, despite his very challenging circumstances,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. “Embassy officials will continue to provide all appropriate support to Evan and his family. And we expect Russian authorities to provide continued consular access.”

Patel repeated U.S. demands that Russia free Gershkovich and “fellow wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan,” who was arrested in 2018 and was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison for espionage.

Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia. He and the Wall Street Journal deny the spying allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. His arrest rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges.

Gershkovich, a fluent Russian speaker, is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is notorious for its harsh conditions.

He is the first American reporter to face 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 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s U.N. mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.