Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia.
A Wall Street Journal reporter, he is charged with espionage. It is the first time Russia, as the nation it is today, has arrested an American journalist.
Many outlets point to the 1986 arrest of U.S. News & World Report journalist Nicholas Daniloff, but that wasn’t Russia. That was the Soviet Union and its state security agency, the KGB, doing the detaining.
The Wall Street Journal denied the espionage allegations and demanded “the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter.”
Gershkovich is the latest poster child for unjust detention in Russia. He takes the place of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who spent months in a Russian prison before being released in December. As a journalist for a major newspaper, he will eclipse Paul Whelan, the other American accused of espionage — at least for a while.
This will start a new round of calls for a prisoner exchange or a concerted push for Gershkovich’s release. It took just 20 days to negotiate Daniloff’s release more than 30 years ago. Whelan has been in Russian custody since December 2018.
“The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable. We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press.”
Good. This must be addressed in the strongest terms. Do that.
But don’t forget about Marc Fogel.
Although Griner and Whelan are names that have been in the headlines, there is another name that can’t be forgotten just because he isn’t a basketball star or a journalist or sprinkled with the glittery cachet of an accused spy.
Fogel, 63, of Oakmont was a teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow. He taught kids. He dealt with pain, which is why he had the same medical cannabis prescription that got Griner arrested. He has been sent to a penal colony.
Gershkovich’s arrest is a tragedy, but it will bring the need for liberation of detained people in Russia into the spotlight again in a way it has not been since Griner’s release.
The White House and President Joe Biden need to include Fogel’s name when they speak about freeing Gershkovich. They need to include his name when they speak to Russia.
And they need to bring Fogel home.
