On 30 March 2023, Russian independent journalist Dmitry Kolezev reported that Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal’s Russia correspondent, had been detained in Yekaterinburg on the previous evening, citing two unnamed sources. According to 7×7, a Russian independent local news website, Gershkovich’s colleagues at the Wall Street Journal had been unable to reach him since the evening of March 29. The Moscow-based journalist was in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Russian Urals region, reporting for a story on the Russian private military group Wagner, and on Russians’ attitudes towards this group. Vecherniye Vedomosti, a local media outlet in Yekaterinburg,  said that security officials in plain clothes had detained an individual at a restaurant in a Yekaterinburg on the evening of March 29, with Novaya Gazeta Europe, a major Russian media outlet based outside of Russia, claiming that this was Gershkovich. The journalist had met at the restaurant that evening with Yaroslav Shirshkov, a local contact.

UPDATE: According to Russian media reports, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case against Gershkovich for espionage. On April 7, the FSB formulated this accusation against him officially. Security services allegedly suspected him of “collecting secret information” on a defense industry facility for the government of the United States. If convicted, the journalist would face 10 to 20 years of prison.

UPDATE: On 27 April 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry refused a request for a consular visit by U.S. embassy representatives to Gershkovich at Lefortovo prison in Moscow. The visit was planned for 11 May. The Russian Foreign Ministry said this was an answer to the decision by U.S. authorities to deny visas to several journalists from Russian state-controlled media, who were planning to travel to New York to attend a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who chaired the UN Security Council there. On April 18, a court in Moscow confirmed a decision from late March to place Gershkovich under arrest for two months.

UPDATE: ON 23 May 2023, a court in Moscow extended the Wall Street Journal correspondent’s pre-trial arrest period for another three months, to August 31. This decision was confirmed by a court of appeal on June 22. On August 24, Gershkovich’s arrest period was further extended to November 30. This decision was confirmed by a court of appeal on September 19.

UPDATE: On November 28, Moscow’s Lefortovo district court extended Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention to 30 January, 2024. This decision was confirmed by a court of appeals on December 14. On January 26, the journalist’s pre-trial detention period was extended to March 30.

UPDATE: On 26 March 2024, Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention was extended again, this time till June 30. Additionally, the Moscow city court fully closed the hearing on the extension of Gershkovich’s arrest to journalists and the public, and announced that all future hearings would be held behind closed doors. The verdict extending Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention until June 30 was confirmed by Moscow’s court of appeals on April 23.

UPDATE: On 13 June 2024, Russia’s Prosecutor-General’s Office said that it had presented final charges to Gershkovich and sent the materials of his case to the Sverdlovsk regional court in Yekaterinburg, the city where the Wall Street Journal correspondent was initially detained in March 2023. On June 17, the court in Yekaterinburg said it had received the materials and announced that the first hearing in the trial would be held on June 26. The trial will take place behind closed doors, given that Russian authorities have accused Gershkovich of espionage.

UPDATE: On 26 June 2024, Gershkovich’s trial began behind closed doors at a court in Yekaterinburg. On July 19, just one day after the second day of the trial, prosecutors in the case asked the court to sentence Gershkovich to 18 years in prison on charges of espionage. On the same day, the WSJ correspondent was sentenced to 16 years in a high rigor penal colony.

UPDATE: On 1 August 2024, Evan Gershkovich was released from custody and was able to return to the United States, as part of a mass prisoner swap between Russia and Belarus on one side, and the United States, Germany, Norway, Poland and Slovenia on the other.