The reporting job in Moscow had everything Evan Gershkovich was looking for, his friends said: experience in a far-flung location with the chance to connect with his Russian roots.
Gershkovich, 31, an American journalist born to Soviet émigrés, moved from New York to Russia in late 2017 to take up his first reporting role, a job at the Moscow Times and, his friends and co-workers said, he quickly embraced life in Moscow.
"He had no hesitation; he was really ready to try something totally new," said Nora Biette-Timmons, a friend from college and the deputy editor of Jezebel, adding, "I remember so distinctly how much he loved what he was doing."
In January 2022, he was hired as a Moscow-based correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, a dream job, his friends said.
But on Thursday, in a move that intensified tensions between Moscow and the West, Russian authorities said that they had detained the journalist, accusing him of "spying in the interests of the American government."
Russia has not provided any evidence to back up the accusations, and Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegation. Russian state media said Gershkovich was being held at a prison in Moscow to await trial after being transported from Yekaterinburg, a city 900 miles away in the Ural Mountains where he was arrested. He is the first American journalist detained on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War and faces up to 20 years in jail.
Dozens of global news organizations have condemned the arrest and President Joe Biden on Friday called for Gershkovich's release. Top editors and press freedom organizations from around the world wrote to the Russian ambassador to the United States on Thursday, saying that the arrest was "unwarranted and unjust" and "a significant escalation in your government's anti-press actions."
The letter went on, "Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law."