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

Figure caption, Watch: Evan Gershkovich describes the moment he was detained by masked men.

Evan Gershkovich: repórter, fã de futebol, homem de família Publicado 1 de agosto de 2024.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich has said that he knew he was being set up by Russia when he was arrested by FSB agents and accused of being a spy.

In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme, Gershkovich spoke about the moment he realised he had been "lured into a trap" when masked men surrounded him at a restaurant in 2023, and detained him.

Não fui interrogado, não fui torturado… Sou acusado de espionagem," ele disse, descrevendo um sentimento de alívio: "Eles me armadilharam e fabricaram este caso para que eu possa ser um refém valioso - um peão em um jogo maior.

Gershkovich, now 34, was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but freed 16 months later as part of a high-profile prisoner swap deal.

Gershkovich had been living in Russia since 2017, and was the Wall Street Journal's foreign correspondent in Moscow when he was arrested - he is now based in Berlin, Germany.

He and his employer have always maintained that the charges were false.

No dia em que foi preso, Gershkovich estava em Yekaterinburg - cerca de 1. 600 km (1. 000 milhas) a leste de Moscou - encontrando alguém que ele acreditava ser uma fonte para uma história.

They were sitting in a half-empty dining hall "and a group of about half-dozen masked men marched in and said 'I think we booked that table'." An odd phrase, Gershkovich said, but on reflection it is clever because it "freezes you in place.

The two men stood up and Gershkovich was told he was under arrest by the notorious and powerful FSB, Russia's domestic security service.

É nesse momento que você percebe que é algo realmente sério… Quando é o FSB, você sabe que foi planejado.

What about the man he'd been meeting? Gershkovich saw him disappear into the crowd.

Pouco depois de sua prisão, o jornalista disse que percebeu que o fato de não estar sendo interrogado ou torturado — táticas comuns usadas pelo serviço de segurança da Rússia em espiões — provavelmente significava que ele estava sendo tratado mais como uma mercadoria, não como um verdadeiro inimigo do Estado.

I have this odd moment - a sense of relief flooding over me," he said. "I realised they're not treating me like a real spy. They've set me up and fabricated this case so that I can be a valuable hostage, a pawn in a greater game.

That means it will take a while, but I won't be here for 12-20 years.

That realisation helped him stay "stable and disciplined in prison", but also gave him a unique way of predicting what might happen next - and one guess was a prisoner swap.

Eu supus que seria realmente alto, que causaria um escândalo global. “Quero dizer, é um correspondente estrangeiro para o Wall Street Journal,” ele disse – e ele estava certo.

Media organisations around the world reported on the case, his face was on a billboard in Times Square and then-US President Joe Biden said he had "no higher priority" than bringing Gershkovich home.

The journalist believed that this was all part of Moscow's plan - to have a high-profile prisoner that it could swap for one of its own - and that was Vadim Krasikov, an assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany.

They [Moscow] got away with it in the sense that there were no sanctions imposed. And so they played it really smart, if you think about it cynically.

Legenda da figura, Assista: Prisioneiros libertados Evan Gershkovich e Paul Whelan se encontram com Biden e Harris.

Gershkovich was held in Moscow's infamous Lefortovo jail, which has held some of the country's most high-profile inmates over the years, including political prisoners and dissidents.

Durante o Grande Terror de Joseph Stalin na década de 1930, tortura e execução eram comuns.

He described it as a "really isolating experience", in a tiny space.

Isso pesa psicologicamente," disse Gershkovich, mas acrescentou que ele foi tratado bem: "Fui permitido dormir, a comida estava boa.

Pictures of Gershkovich smiling at cameras during his court appearances in Moscow were broadcast around the world - and that was deliberate, he said - a way of showing that he was alright.

I wanted to show people this kind of defiance... We know that this is a fabricated case, and so if this is a game of theatre, let's not let [Moscow] have it play out the way they want it to.

Image source, ReutersImage caption, Evan Gershkovich said he smiled at the cameras during his court appearances to show he was doing ok.

But he stressed that not everyone's time in a Russian prison is like his: "Some people... get tortured. They get broken as human beings, deprived of food, of hot water for showers, told that they're never going to see their families again.

Gershkovich compared his experience to the case of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died while in Russian captivity in 2024, aged 27. Months later, when her body was finally returned, it reportedly showed signs of torture and her organs had been removed.

Gershkovich sabia que havia uma troca de prisioneiros planejada três semanas antes de acontecer – um período “excruciante”, disse ele, “porque agora cada dia é dolorosamente longo.”.

When it finally did happen, on 1 August 2024, it was a moment of "pure joy". But then "the joy fades, the adrenaline subsides, and you're faced with the reality of having to return to normal life again.

Gershkovich said this period was difficult and sometimes overwhelming. He wasn't sleeping, suffered panic attacks in large crowds and had a short temper because he was trying to hold in his emotions.

He has seen therapists who specialise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and said writing a book on his ordeal also helped.

E quanto a um retorno à Rússia? Gershkovich tem uma história profunda com o país – seus pais mudaram para os EUA da União Soviética na década de 1970. Ele cresceu em um lar de língua russa, com um nome russo, mudou-se para lá quando tinha 25 anos e fez muitos amigos, incluindo sua namorada russa.

I would hope to get back one day, but I guess we'll have to see what comes after [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. And it's not completely clear that the next government will be any better.

Two years, secret talks, high stakes: How prisoner swap deal was struck.