Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia on March 29 on charges of espionage, sent his first letter to his family in the US since he was detained, the text was published by the WSJ. Handwritten in Russian, the language he speaks at home with his parents, he explained that he was optimistic and couldn’t wait to see them again. “I mean I’m not losing hope. I read. I train. And I’m trying to write. Maybe, finally, I will write something good », he wrote in the two-page letter dated 5 April.
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Evan’s words are the first direct contact with the family since his arrest. Gershkovich’s mother, Ella Milman, said her son used a light tone in writing about her in an effort to keep the family’s morale high. “Mom, unfortunately, for better or for worse, you have prepared me well for prison food,” she joked, “in the morning, for breakfast, they give us hot cream of wheat, oatmeal or wheat porridge. I’m remembering my childhood.”
Evan addressed the letter to his “dear family”: his mother, father Mikhail and sister Danielle, whom he refers to by the family nickname, Duscia. Ms. Milman, 66, said she felt great joy in receiving the letter, because she finally feels firsthand how she is: “These are my son’s words, not someone else telling me. And his spirit shines forth.’
Gershkovich now faces what experts in Russia’s legal system say will be a lengthy judicial process with little hope of an acquittal. His prison correspondence is being monitored by the Russian security services. So far the reporter has only been allowed visits by his Russian lawyers, he has not been able to receive visits from friends or officials from the US embassy in Moscow, despite repeated requests for access.