Friends and family of two prominent Americans imprisoned in Russia have one way they recommend concerned fellow citizens can boost their spirits: Write them letters.
Following the shocking arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich last month in Russia on dubious espionage charges, the plight of Paul Whelan, serving a 16-year sentence at a labor camp for spying charges widely viewed as bogus, has also come back into focus. Gershkovich has formally denied the allegations, as Moscow claims his arrest was due to trying to obtain secret information about a Russian arms factory.
Gershkovich’s case has captured global attention and rallied journalists of all stripes to his aid. Experts say he faces near-certain conviction and a lengthy prison sentence in a closed-door spying trial, where more than 99 percent of such cases in Russia lead to that result. Why he was specifically targeted remains unclear, but he could fetch a hefty price if the Kremlin agrees to a future prisoner exchange.
As Gershkovich is held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, his friends say the letter-writing campaign they’ve organized can help remind him he hasn’t been forgotten.
“It’s incredibly heartening. You just want him to know the degree of support, and it’s coming from all over the world, and I’m delighted he will be finally hearing from us,” Financial Times journalist Polina Ivanova told Fox News Digital. “What impact his detention has had, how much it’s moved people all over the world.”
A close friend of Gershkovich, Ivanova said supporters could write to freegershkovich@gmail.com, where messages are then translated into Russian, a requirement before prisoners can receive pre-screened outside messages. They’ve already received hundreds of messages for him and can confirm he’s begun to read them.
Ivanova said she teased him in her own note about his decision to bring “Life and Fate,” the epic novel by Soviet author Vasily Grossman, along to a recent group beach vacation in Vietnam, when she wanted to simply unwind and relax. But Gershkovich, she said, wanted to read the famed tome about life in the Soviet Union to deepen his coverage of the country.
His parents were Soviet Jews who fled for the U.S. in the late 1970s; Gershkovich was raised as a typical New Jersey kid but never lost his fascination with his parents’ home nation. Following stops at The New York Times (2016-2017), The Moscow Times (2017-2020) and Agence France-Presse (2020-2022), he joined the Wall Street Journal last year.
The Wall Street Journal published a report Wednesday detailing the inhumane conditions prisoners face at Lefortovo, the infamous Russian prison where Gershkovich is being held. Gershkovich became the first overseas reporter charged with espionage since the Cold War.
According to the Journal, the rooms in the prison are designed to prevent prisoners from seeing one another or engaging in any social interaction.
“Nestled on the leafy side streets of a quiet neighborhood in eastern Moscow, Lefortovo has since the late Czarist era held thousands of accused spies, dissidents, writers, rebels, and all other manner of political prisoners and hardened criminals,” the Journal reported.
As Fox News Digital reported at the end of March, the Russian government’s Federal Security Service alleged that the journalist was “‘trying to obtain secret information’ on the activities of one of ‘the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.'”
The U.S. State Department is in the process of formally declaring Gershkovich “wrongfully detained.” White House officials say the reporter’s release is a top priority for the Biden administration.
Gershkovich is the second American to be publicly detained in Russia in recent months. WNBA star Brittney Griner was also detained last year on cannabis possession charges and remained in Russian custody for several months before the U.S. negotiated her release in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen who was serving a prison sentence in America. Known colloquially as the “Merchant of Death,” Bout was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy to kill Americans and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
David Whelan, Paul’s brother, praised Griner’s return home at the time but said it was still devastating news to his family, as Whelan was left behind despite being held in Russia far longer than Griner.
Griner organized a letter-writing campaign for Whelan on her social media when she returned home, directing people to send messages to the State Department that could then reach Whelan across the world. They can still do so to let him know his compatriots have him in their thoughts.
His brother told Fox News Digital that he has highly limited media access, but he said he got a “huge number of letters” weighing 40 pounds after Griner’s call.
“He knows that U.S. citizens have not forgotten him,” David Whelan said.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Joe Silverstein contributed to this report.
