Evan Gershkovich, a US reporter, is accused of being a CIA spy and has been detained in a Moscow jail for over a year. He could face up to 20 years in prison — unless he’s saved by a last-minute prisoner swap.
Russia’s war in Ukraine had been going on for about a year when Evan Gershkovich arrived in Yekaterinburg, in the foothills of the Ural Mountains, on March 29, 2023. He was there to research a story about the infamous Wagner Group and their recruitment methods — and potentially to find out what Russians think about the mercenary fighting unit.
Yekaterinburg is also the headquarters of Uralvagonzavod, a large Russian defense company that, among other things, makes tanks for use in Ukraine. Could this have been the reason for Gershkovich being there, of all places, some 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) east of Moscow? The answer is unclear. What is clear, however, is that visiting the city will seal his fate.
Pretty sure that if you’re a spy, reporter is probably the worst possible cover, since a reporter is already someone that very clearly snoops, and snooping people get watched closely.
I think a much better spy would be a native born Russian, working in a lower-level job where people don’t pay a whole lot of attention to them.
Yeah, this guy is just a pawn. The Kremlin is desperate for leverage against the west and he’s unfortunate enough to be caught up in it.
Do you actually think that intelligence agencies are only in contact with one guy? Why wouldn’t the CIA be interested in a reporter traveling to Russia to do a story about Wagner?
Whether the CIA is interested in the guy is one thing, they’re probably interested in a lot of things. The guy working for them is another.
Spies being interested in you, and being a spy, are not the same thing.
Yeah I agree, it’s impossible to know if he’s a spy or not. He might even not know he had shared intresset with other agencies, someone might have led him closer to Wagner than he initially intended.
But he does raise a lot of questions for the Russian it intelligence.
Yeah, I think it’s pretty easy to say he’s not a spy. If he was, he’s the dumbest spy in the history of spies.
