Gurevich, Columnist For Russian Daily 'Kommersant': Gershkovich Arrest Intended As A Warning To Western Journalists Not To Stray Outside Moscow

Mikhail Gurevich, a columnist for the Russian daily Kommersant, believes that the Western understanding of the arrest of The Wall Street Journal's Russia correspondent Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges as a means of providing Russia with someone to trade for a Russian incarcerated in the U.S. is reasonable but mistaken. Gershkovich's arrest was intended to serve as a warning to other Western journalists to stick to reporting from the capital and not to venture into the country's interior. This is especially true when dealing with topics sensitive to the regime such as the Wagner PMC.

The arrest was not a smart move for the regime, since, according to Gurevich, the Western media's enmity for the Putin regime has now become personal.

Gurevich's column follows below:[1]

Evan Gershkovich (Source: Moskvichmag.ru)

"The Western press refers to Evan Gershkovich's detention as nothing less than hostage-taking aimed at topping-up the '[prisoner] swap fund.' Pursuant to this logic, they arrested the Wall Street Journal correspondent in order to exchange him for someone else.

"In particular, they remind us of the two Russians with Argentinian passports detained on Slovenian territory in January, of Sergei Cherkasov serving a 15-year sentence in Brazil for forging documents and even of the son of Krasnoyarsk governor Artem Uss, who escaped house arrest in Italy the other day.

"Given the recent swap of basketball player Brittney Griner for Victor Bout, the idea is not without merit. However, geopolitical clashes aside, there are more practical reasons for what has happened.

"Basically, we are witnessing the acknowledgement of the fact that currently almost any interest in the Russian army or military-industrial complex enterprises is being conflated [by the state] into an attempt to gain access to state secrets.

"The American simply did not understand that the words of the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, about working in three shifts [at military-industrial complex enterprises] were an order, and that a search for confirmation of this from ordinary people was espionage.

"Until last week, many foreign correspondents naively believed that all these amendments and supplements to the Criminal Code exclusively concerned Russian citizens, not them.

"Now, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova argues that Gershkovich's activities 'have nothing to do with journalism.' Given the WSJ's traditional distaste for U.S. intelligence services, this claim is hard to believe. It's much simpler to suggest that the classic understanding of journalism doesn't fully coincide with that of Zakharova.

"Even so, she and her staff should have thoroughly and repeatedly explained to accredited reporters that the professional performance of their job descriptions in Russia is extremely hazardous to their health and threatens them with years behind bars (that is true for both interviewers and interviewees); and if they do not want to end up in 'the dock,' they should not travel beyond 'the Garden Ring' [ring road around central districts of Moscow].

"Now, however, everyone would be able to view this as an example. And the case of Evan, whom his friends call Vanya [diminutive of Ivan], resembles the case of our other Vanya.

"It is difficult to avoid the sensation that 22 years in a strict penal colony is not merely a sentence received by Ivan Safronov,[2] but is also a warning to all of us, his colleagues. And now foreign reporters have also received their own distinctive 'black spot' [a symbol of a death sentence to a pirate].

Ivan Safronov (Source: Rbc.ru)

"However, there is another recent case that is worth mentioning in relation to Gershkovich. Reportedly, one of the purposes of his business trip to the Urals was to prepare a story about the conflict between Ekaterinburg politicians and the Wagner PMC.

"We know very well what delving into the PMCs can lead to, based on a case of the tragic African trip of the film crew headed by Orkhan Gemal.[3] They were likewise interested in the military business of [Wagner boss] Yevgeny Prigozhin. So, Evan, one might even say, got lucky.

"His colleagues from the leading American media will now fight for him. And provided Gershkovich is not released in the next few days, we risk feeling the true power of the fourth estate in the U.S. Those who hoped that the Western press would tire of the Ukrainian issue may be sorely disappointed. And no matter how much the Kremlin talks about provocation and escalation on part of the West, it is we [Russia], who poured oil on the fire."