Russian mercenary boss jokes about reporter Evan Gershkovich

An American reporter with the Wall Street Journal has been detained on suspicion of spying while covering Russia’s Wagner mercenary group — claims that the force’s founder mocked by saying he would visit his “torture cellar” to confirm the journalist’s whereabouts.

Evan Gershkovich, 31, appeared in a Moscow court Thursday and pleaded not guilty to espionage charges, after which he was ordered held in lockup until May 29.

Gershkovich, wearing a yellow jacket with the hood up, was then photographed being bundled into a van waiting outside the courthouse and whisked away.

Vladimir Putin’s FSB security service said earlier Thursday that Gershkovich was taken into custody in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, suspected of gathering information classified as a state secret about an unspecified military factory.

“It has been established that E. Gershkovich, acting on an assignment from the American side, was gathering information classified as a state secret about the activity of one of the enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex,” the FSB said in a statement, which included no evidence of the journalist’s alleged crime.

The Daily Beast reached out to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, asking him to comments on reports that Gershkovich was taken into custody after writing about the paramilitary organization that has been leading the fight to capture the key city of Bakhmut in Ukraine.

Prigozhin, Putin’s longtime ally, issued a deeply sarcastic response openly poking fun at the inquiry.

“I am not aware of Evan Gershkovich’s detention in Yekaterinburg,” the mercenary boss wrote in a reply he shared on his Telegram channel. “If you want, I could check the torture cellar in my house — to see if he’s there.”

Prigozhin continued in the same derisive vain, writing: “Among the American journalists, scores of whom I am keeping in there, I have not spotted him.”

“I could, if you want, check the freshly dug graves of foreign journalists on the property outside my home. But if I’m not mistaken, we had not buried him there.” 

The Wall Street Journal strongly denied the espionage allegations and demanded the immediate release of its “trusted and dedicated reporter.”

“We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family,” the newspaper said.

Gershkovich has covered Russia for six years for various publications, including The Moscow Times, AFP, and most recently The Wall Street Journal, which hired him in Jan. 2022.

He is the highest-profile American detained in Russia since WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was freed in December as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for arms trafficker Victor Bout after spending 10 months behind bars on drug charges.

Daniil Berman, a lawyer representing Gershkovich, said he was not permitted inside the courtroom during Thursday’s closed-door hearing, or allowed to see the charges against his client.

Berman told reporters he believed Gershkovich would be taken to Lefortovo, the notorious 19th-century Moscow jail where political prisoners were held during Soviet times.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believed Gershkovich had been “caught red-handed,” but he did not go into any details pertaining to the case, which has been marked “top secret.”

Gershkovich is believed to be the first foreign reporter to be criminally charged with espionage in Russia in nearly four decades.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said it was too early to talk of any possible prisoner swap with the US, saying that such deals are typically arranged only after a defendant is convicted.

If found guilty of espionage, Gershkovich could be looking at up to 20 years in a Russian prison. 

The son of Soviet Jewish immigrants, in recent months Gershkovich had primarily covered Russian politics and the invasion of Ukraine.

Yaroslav Shirshikov, a political expert in Yekaterinburg, told Reuters he was interviewed by Gershkovich two weeks ago and was due to meet him again Thursday, the same day his detention was announced.

He said the reporter had asked him about local people’s attitude towards the Wagner mercenary group and had told him he planned to travel to Nizhny Tagil, a city that is home to a big tank factory, to ask residents how their views on the Ukraine conflict had evolved.

Shirshikov said Gershkovich had not said anything about wanting information about a military factory and was not “an enemy of Russia.”

Other foreign correspondents covering Russia showed support for Gershkovich on social media, saying that he was doing his job as a reporter and was not a spy.

Andrei Soldatov, an author and expert in Russia’s security agencies, tweeted: “Evan Gershkovich is a very good and brave journalist, not a spy. It is a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents who still work in Russia. And it means that the FSB is off the leash.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch called for his release.

“Evan is an outstanding reporter and Russian authorities should free him immediately,” tweeted Rachel Denber, deputy director of Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

With Post wires