The family of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich received his first handwritten letter from the pre-trial detention center. This was reported by the WSJ.
The letter was written in Russian, in which the journalist speaks at home with his parents, Soviet emigrants Ella and Mikhail. Hershkovich's family said they were «greatly happy» when they received it.
“I want to say that I do not lose hope. <…> I am reading. I practice. And I'm trying to write. Maybe, finally, I will write something good, ”the Wall Street Journal quotes the contents of the letter.
Gershkovich says that for breakfast in the pre-trial detention center they give wheat or oatmeal. Because of her, he remembers his childhood. The journalist also said that he received a package from friends with toiletries, slippers, clothes and stationery.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained on March 29 in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code). The next day, a court in Moscow sent him to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. On April 7, the journalist was charged, which he categorically denied. According to the FSB, the Wall Street Journal correspondent «on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting state secrets about the activities of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex.»
The US State Department assigned Gershkovich the status of «wrongfully detained.» US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US President Joe Biden called for the release of the journalist. Bloomberg wrote that Vladimir Putin personally approved the arrest of Gershkovich at the initiative of high-ranking security officials.