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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich says Russia’s Federal Security Service orchestrated an elaborate sting operation that led to his 2023 arrest on espionage charges, according to his first detailed published account of the episode.
In an extract from his memoir, This Cursed Beautiful Land, Gershkovich describes traveling to Yekaterinburg while reporting on Russia’s military production. He met twice with a union official connected to a local factory in the major defense-industry center.
During their second meeting at a restaurant, Gershkovich says the source unexpectedly produced handwritten documents containing figures that he said related to tank production. Gershkovich and his editors had previously agreed that he should neither request nor accept documents from the source.
While Gershkovich was taking notes, masked FSB officers entered the restaurant and arrested him. He recounts being handcuffed, having a black bag placed over his head and being taken away in a van. Gershkovich says he was physically restrained and questioned following his detention.
The journalist was arrested on March 29, 2023, and became the first U.S. reporter detained in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War. Russian authorities later sentenced him to 16 years in prison. He was freed on August 1, 2024, after nearly 500 days in custody as part of a major international prisoner exchange.
Gershkovich says information he obtained after his release suggested the FSB had prepared another opportunity to arrest him during a planned reporting trip to Siberia if the Yekaterinburg operation failed.
He believes the meetings in Yekaterinburg were arranged to build an espionage case against him and secure Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval for his arrest. The Kremlin did not immediately comment on Gershkovich’s latest account.
Putin previously said Gershkovich had been caught collecting confidential information. Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have consistently rejected Russia’s espionage allegations.
