US journalist Evan Gershkovich has said that he knew he was being set up by Russia when he was arrested by FSB agents and accused of being a spy.
In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme, Gershkovich spoke about the moment he realised he had been “lured into a trap” when masked men surrounded him at a restaurant in 2023, and detained him.
“I’m not interrogated, I’m not tortured… I’m accused of espionage,” he said, describing a sense of relief: “They’ve set me up and fabricated this case so that I can be a valuable hostage – a pawn in a greater game”.
Gershkovich, now 34, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but freed 16 months later as part of a high-profile prisoner swap deal.
On the day he was arrested, Gershkovich was in Yekaterinburg – about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow – meeting someone who he thought was a source for a story.
They were sitting in a half-empty dining hall “and a group of about half-dozen masked men marched in and said ‘I think we booked that table’.” An odd phrase, Gershkovich said, but on reflection it is clever because it “freezes you in place”.
The two men stood up and Gershkovich was told he was under arrest by the notorious and powerful FSB, Russia’s domestic security service.
“It’s at that moment that you realise it’s something really serious… When it’s the FSB, you know it’s been planned.”
What about the man he’d been meeting? Gershkovich saw him disappear into the crowd.
Not long after his arrest, the journalist said he realised that the fact he was not being interrogated or tortured – common tactics used by Russia’s security service on spies – likely meant that he was being treated more like a commodity, not a true enemy of the state.
“I have this odd moment – a sense of relief flooding over me,” he said. “I realised they’re not treating me like a real spy. They’ve set me up and fabricated this case so that I can be a valuable hostage, a pawn in a greater game. That means it will take a while, but I won’t be here for 12-20 years.”
That realisation helped him stay “stable and disciplined in prison”, but also gave him a unique way of predicting what might happen next – and one guess was a prisoner swap.
“I assumed that it would be really loud, that it would cause a global uproar. I mean, it’s a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal,” he said – and he was right.
Media organisations around the world reported on the case, his face was on a billboard in Times Square and then-US President Joe Biden said he had “no higher priority” than bringing Gershkovich home.
The journalist believed that this was all part of Moscow’s plan – to have a high-profile prisoner that it could swap for one of its own – and that was Vadim Krasikov, an assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany.
“They [Moscow] got away with it in the sense that there were no sanctions imposed. And so they played it really smart, if you think about it cynically.”
Gershkovich was held in Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo jail, which has held some of the country’s most high-profile inmates over the years, including political prisoners and dissidents. During the Great Terror of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, torture and execution were commonplace.
He described it as a “really isolating experience”, in a tiny space.
“That wears on you psychologically,” Gershkovich said, but added that he was treated ok: “I was allowed to sleep, the food was fine.”
Pictures of Gershkovich smiling at cameras during his court appearances in Moscow were broadcast around the world – and that was deliberate, he said – a way of showing that he was alright.
“I wanted to show people this kind of defiance… We know that this is a fabricated case, and so if this is a game of theatre, let’s not let [Moscow] have it play out the way they want it to.”
ReutersBut he stressed that not everyone’s time in a Russian prison is like his: “Some people… get tortured. They get broken as human beings, deprived of food, of hot water for showers, told that they’re never going to see their families again. I was treated completely differently.”
Gershkovich compared his experience to the case of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died while in Russian captivity in 2024, aged 27. Months later, when her body was finally returned, it reportedly showed signs of torture and her organs had been removed.
Gershkovich knew there was a prisoner swap planned three weeks before it happened – an “excruciating” time, he said, “because now every day is painfully long”.
When it finally did happen, on 1 August 2024, it was a moment of “pure joy”. But then “the joy fades, the adrenaline subsides, and you’re faced with the reality of having to return to normal life again.”
Gershkovich said this period was difficult and sometimes overwhelming. He wasn’t sleeping, suffered panic attacks in large crowds and had a short temper because he was trying to hold in his emotions.
He has seen therapists who specialise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and said writing a book on his ordeal also helped.
And what about a return to Russia? Gershkovich has a deep history with the country – his parents moved to the US from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. He grew up in a Russian-speaking home, with a Russian name, moved there when he was 25 and made many friends, including his Russian girlfriend.
“I would hope to get back one day, but I guess we’ll have to see what comes after [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. And it’s not completely clear that the next government will be any better.”
