'I was lured into a trap': Evan Gershkovich on moment that led to 16 months in Russian jail

US writer Evan Gershkovich said he knew he was being “acceptable up” by Russia when FSB agents arrested him and accused him of espionage. In his first UK interview with the BBC, Gershkovich recalled the instant he realised he had been “lured into a trap” after masked men surrounded him at a building in 2023 and detained him. “I'm not interrogated, I'm not tortured… I'm accused of espionage,” he said, describing a feeling of relief: “They've acceptable maine up and fabricated this lawsuit truthful that I tin beryllium a invaluable hostage - a pawn successful a greater game”. Gershkovich, now 34, was sentenced to 16 years in prison but was released 16 months later as part of a high-profile captive swap deal as portion of a high-profile captive swap deal. He had lived in Russia since 2017 and served as the Wall Street Journal’s overseas correspondent in Moscow at the time of his arrest; he is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Gershkovich and his editors have consistently maintained the charges are baseless. On the day of his arrest, Gershkovich was in Yekaterinburg, roughly 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow, meeting someone he believed could be a source for a story. They were seated in a half‑empty cafeteria hallway when “a radical of astir half-dozen masked men marched in and said 'I deliberation we booked that table'.” Gershkovich called the phrase odd but noted that, upon reflection, it “freezes you successful place”. The two men stood, and Gershkovich was informed he was under arrest by the notorious and powerful FSB, Russia’s domestic security service. “It's astatine that infinitesimal that you realise it's thing truly serious… When it's the FSB, you cognize it's been planned,” he remarked. Asked about the man he had been meeting, Gershkovich said he saw him disappear into the crowd. Not long after his arrest, he observed that he was not being interrogated or tortured—tactics commonly used by Russian intelligence against suspected spies—suggesting he was being treated more like a commodity than a genuine state asset. “I person this unusual infinitesimal - a consciousness of alleviation flooding implicit me,” he said. “I realised they're not treating maine similar a existent spy. They've acceptable maine up and fabricated this lawsuit truthful that I tin beryllium a invaluable hostage, a pawn successful a greater game. That means it volition instrumentality a while, but I won't beryllium present for 12-20 years.” That realization helped him stay “stable and disciplined successful prison” and gave him an unconventional way to anticipate what might happen next, including the possibility of a prisoner exchange. “I assumed that it would beryllium truly loud, that it would origin a planetary uproar. I mean, it's a overseas analogous for the Wall Street Journal,” he said—and he was correct. Media outlets worldwide covered the case, his image appeared on a billboard in Times Square, and then‑US President Joe Biden stated he had “no higher priority” than bringing Gershkovich home then-US President Joe Biden said helium had "no higher priority". Gershkovich believed this fit Moscow’s strategy of securing a high‑profile detainee to exchange for one of its own, specifically Vadim Krasikov, an assassin serving a life sentence in Germany Vadim Krasikov. “They [Moscow] got distant with it successful the consciousness that determination were nary sanctions imposed. And truthful they played it truly smart, if you deliberation astir it cynically,” he added.