By Donald Gilpin

Friday, March 29, marked a full year since Evan Gershkovich, a 2010 Princeton High School graduate, was detained in Russia while on assignment as a fully accredited reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He was accused of espionage and has been imprisoned at the high-security Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government, and Gershkovich himself have forcefully denied the charges. On March 26 his detention was extended for three more months. HIs trial date has not been set.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly asserted his commitment to seeking a release or a prisoner exchange for Gershkovich, and the Biden administration has announced that “intensive efforts” are underway on Gershkovich’s behalf.

“Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter — risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” Biden stated on Friday.

Gershkovich, 32, is the first American to be imprisoned on espionage charges in Russia since 1986 during the Cold War.

The New York Times reported on Friday that in prison Gershkovich has been playing a “slow-running” game of chess by mail with his father, works through book recommendations from his friends, exercises, meditates, reads, writes letters, and keeps track of people’s birthdays and other events. HIs father described the prison cell as “a very small, very isolated place with a small window and very little time outside,” according to the Times.

A group of Gershkovich’s friends have set up a website for him at freegershkovich.com, where supporters can send him an email, which will be translated into Russian in accordance with Russian law, or donate to a GoFundMe to help his parents.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday printed a wraparound front page with the banner headline: “His Story Should Be Here,” followed by the subhead: “A year in Russian prison. A year of stolen stories, stolen joys, stolen memories. The crime:  journalism.” —all above a huge blank space covering most of the front page.

Gershkovich grew up in Princeton. He spoke Russian at home with his Jewish parents, who had been born in the Soviet Union and fled to the United States in 1970. At Princeton High School Gershkovich was captain of the soccer team his senior year and led the team to a state championship.

He went on to Bowdoin College and after college moved to New York City to pursue a career in journalism. He was a news assistant at the New York Times for nearly two years then in 2017 was hired by the Moscow Times as a news reporter. He joined the Wall Street Journal in 2022.

In a letter to Wall Street Journal readers on Friday, Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker wrote, “This one-year anniversary is an opportunity to express our admiration for our colleague and his family. It is a reminder of the dangers facing journalists worldwide as they pursue their essential mission. And it energizes us to continue the effort to ensure that this is the last milestone that Evan spends in prison.”