The mother of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich said Wednesday that her son is doing his best to “lift his spirits” in a Russian prison designed to “destroy his mind.” Told.
Ella Milman, speaking in Davos, Switzerland, said her 32-year-old son's conditions in Moscow's Lefortovo prison were “very difficult” and described the prison as a “Stalin-era” facility.
“We're worried about him and he's worried about us,” Millman said.
Gershkovych has been seen as being wrongfully detained by the United States since late March 2023, when he was first arrested while reporting in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, and charged with spying. He attracted international attention and became a symbol of the dangers of journalism in authoritarian countries.
Journalist Evan Gershkovitch's imprisonment in Russia is a 'body blow', the Wall Street Journal says, and the US is working towards his release.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in the defendant's enclosure before a court hearing to consider his appeal from pretrial detention on spying charges in Moscow, October 10, 2023. . (Reuters/Evgenia Novozhenina/File photo)
“Basically, prison is designed to isolate you and break you down. You never see the light of day. It's tough. But he's fighting, he's answering letters,” Millman said in prison. talked about. “We receive letters from him every week and his Russian lawyer meets with him regularly. [U.S.] Ambassador Lynn Tracy visits him once a month. ”
“He can read books and requests the literature he wants to read. He keeps his spirits up and his letters are humorous and make me laugh,” she added.
The Biden administration and the Wall Street Journal have called the spying charges against Gershkovic unreasonable and demanded his release while working behind the scenes to bring him home.
The White House said it was working to bring Gershkovic home.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovic's parents, Ella Millman and Mikhail Gershkovic, are interviewed by anchor “FOX & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy in New York City on Dec. 4, 2023. receive. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
“We need to advocate for Evan. We're trying to do our best. But it's definitely going to take time.” [its] Paid…Evan is scheduled to appear in court next week and it's painful to watch. Our hearts go out to all the families in this situation,” Millman said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Gershković is currently in pretrial detention until at least January 30, the newspaper said.
At his annual press conference last December, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Gershkovych, who turned 32 while in custody in October, and fellow imprisoned American Paul Whelan, pleading for his release. It was suggested that an agreement towards this goal is possible.
People walk past Lefortovo Prison in Moscow on January 8, 2019. (Kiril Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Why don't they return to their homeland? Shouldn't they then commit crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation?” Putin said. “But this is all rhetoric. It does not mean that we will refuse to return it. We did not refuse it. We want to reach agreements, and these agreements are mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial It has to be suitable.”
Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report.
