Days after the United States and Russia completed a historic prisoner swap, Russian state media continue to promote the unfounded claim that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Gershkovich was one of the 16 people Russia released in the landmark prisoner exchange on August 1. Like the other freed American citizen, Paul Whelan, a Russian court sentenced Gershkovich to 16 years in prison on what the U.S. called trumped-up espionage charges.
On August 5, the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB, released heavily edited video and audio recordings of Gershkovich and Whelan, which they said, “proved” the two Americans’ espionage activities in Russia.
Russian state broadcaster RT published fragments of footage showing law enforcement approaching Gershkovich at a restaurant in Yekaterinburg in March 2023.
With a red highlighter, focused on Gershkovich’s right hand under a table, RT said the journalist “attempted to hide what appeared to be a flash drive with illegally obtained classified data.”
“The journalist is seen sitting in a restaurant with his ‘source,’ as the pair discuss in Russian how to hand over secret data on the country’s defense industry in a way that won’t allow the authorities to track the leak.”
That is misleading.
The recordings provide no evidence Gershkovich committed any crime or was involved in espionage. The audio and video published by RT attest to Gershkovich’s engagement in normal journalistic activities before his arrest.
The video montage starts by showing a man who approaches Gershkovich’s table, sits next to him, gives something to the American, and leaves. Immediately after, men in civilian clothes surround Gershkovich using force to arrest him although he does not resist.
The footage was digitally manipulated to replace its natural sound with dramatic music and blur the “source’s” face.
The video then freezes on a frame showing Gershkovich sitting at the table with a red circle added to highlight his right hand holding something under the table.
The clip continues with the audio recording of the alleged conversation between Gershkovich and his “source,” who tells the reporter in a digitally altered voice he has “secret information,” but none of the released audio clarifies what that information was.
Russia accused Gershkovich of seeking to obtain information about the Uralvagonzavod factory, a large-scale facility that produces tanks roughly 81 miles north of Yekaterinburg.
None of the recordings published by RT has Gershkovich discussing the Uralvagonzavod facility or related industries.
In a television broadcast, RT aired a portion of the audio recording to claim that Gershkovich had been caught “red-handed” attempting to “coerce” a “representative of a Russian arms manufacturer into handing over classified information.”
RT did not mention in its report that in the audio recording Gershkovich asked the “representative” to leave the device with the data at home and told him the meeting was for an interview. RT didn’t include that portion of the audio in its TV broadcast either.
Yet, the unidentified individual is heard asking Gershkovich to be “very careful,” saying the information is “secret.”
Gershkovich replies that they will not mention seeing the documents and cite anonymous sources in the report. That, he said, will keep authorities from suspecting that they had collected information, or that a source had leaked information.
Gershkovich continues:
“The approach here is, like right now, this is just an interview.”
The FSB and RT did not present any recording, video, or audio, to prove that Gershkovich requested specific secret information or even had knowledge of the content of the device a “source” had given to him.
Taken together, Gershkovich’s actions indicate he was acting as a journalist, seeking ways to protect the identity of his interviewee.
In a statement published by the U.K. Telegraph, Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker condemned the use of the FSB video to frame Gershkovich.
“This video is only the latest evidence that Russia will stop at nothing in its methodical effort to demolish reliable journalism. Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and any portrayal to the contrary is fiction. Journalism is not a crime,” they said.
In March, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the Russian authorities had provided “a striking lack of any factual or legal substantiation” for the espionage charges leveled against Gershkovich.