Evan Gershkovich writes first-person account of spy after his arrest: ‘I never stopped reporting’

The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich “didn’t stop reporting” during his harsh imprisonment in Russia. On Thursday, his name came up where he always wanted to: as a story writer, not a single subject.

Gershkovich wrote a first-person account of identifying the Kremlin spy who brought him grief and was present at his release.

“When I was arrested by Russian security forces in 2023 — the first foreign journalist charged with espionage since the Cold War — I didn’t stop reporting,” Gershkovich wrote in a story featuring the cooperation of other Journal reporters. “On my way out, I went to identify who took me, and read more about the intelligence unit that carried out his order.

Working with other Wall Street Journal reporters who asked similar questions throughout his nearly 500 days in prison, Gershkovich reported that “the man behind the curtain” was Lt. DKRO.

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“It is the very core of Putin’s silent wartime regime. The story of how he got there reveals a lot about how Russia’s totalitarian system has become deeply embroiled in a major conflict with the West,” Gershkovich wrote.

Gershkovich said that the DKRO accused him of being a CIA agent, a claim that had no evidence and was called stupid on its face by the United States, but it was enough for Russia to arrest him forever. The American-born journalist, whose parents were Russian immigrants, had no idea at the time that he would become one of the most famous people in the world.

He was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in Yekaterinburg, the country’s fourth largest city. He was eventually taken to Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo prison, a place where many people were killed during the Great Purge under dictator Joseph Stalin and is still a place designed to psychologically isolate dissidents and suspects.

“It was in Lefortovo that I came to understand the power of the dark forces that had taken my freedom,” Gershkovich wrote.

The journal’s report revealed that the secretive DKRO is the key to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repressive regime and moves such as arresting Gershkovich, ex-Marine Paul Whelan and WNBA player Brittney Griner to create a force to recover figures such as the man convicted of assaulting Vadim Krasikov and deadly weapons. merchant Viktor Bout.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage at a court in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. He was released in August in a prisoner swap. (AP)

Minaev was there on Aug. 1 when Gershkovich, Whelan and dozens of others were released in a massive, complex prisoner exchange involving the United States, Russia and Germany.

The ordeal of Gershkovich, who turned 33 in October, received media attention during his arrest, and President Biden even mentioned him during his State of the Union address earlier this year.

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He was convicted of espionage in a closed court in July and sentenced to 16 years in prison, with a suspended sentence, before being released weeks later. Now, less than five months later, he is reporting again, and online journalists were delighted to see his colleague’s name in print where it didn’t belong.

DKRO officials are highly compensated and considered the Kremlin’s “top security force,” Gershkovich reported. He revealed that two of his journalist colleagues were spied on while working in Vienna and Washington as a form of intimidation.

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At home, the DKRO has arrested hundreds of Russians on charges of espionage, collaboration and treason to crack down on opponents of Putin’s regime. The Wall Street Journal report also said that DKRO is responsible for the purge of the national defense department as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine goes awry, the arrest of officials for corruption, and intelligence officials warn that it is planning evil acts abroad to fight the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Moscow’s appointed head of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

But its focus under Putin is more inward, the report said, because of the autocrat’s focus on spying inside Russia.

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“A former Russian intelligence official described an unusual twist: The president once created an intelligence committee to look into cross-ethnic allies for anti-intelligence agencies looking for allies among ordinary Russians,” the Wall Street Journal reported.