
Footage of Evan Gershkovich's arrest in March of last year was released by Moscow via Russian TV channel RT, just 24 hours after the Wall Street Journal reporter was released from a Russian prison as part of the historic US-Russia prisoner swap deal. .
The footage shows plainclothes Russian intelligence agents storming the restaurant in Yekaterinburg where the journalist was speaking to a source in a meeting secretly monitored by Russian authorities and arresting him.
FSB agents are seen putting their arm around his neck to handcuff him, and then lay him face down on the ground. One of them has his knee on his back. He is then taken out of the restaurant and taken to the FSB vehicle.
An audio recording purported to be of Gershkowitz's conversation with his source shortly before the agents intervened was also released.
"All I ask, please, is that you be very careful because this is classified information," Gershkowitz's interlocutor is heard saying in the video clip. "
We won't even say we've seen the documents,” Gershkowitz was quoted as saying, explaining that everything will be attributed to an anonymous source.
We remind you that the American journalist was arrested by the Russian authorities for "espionage", a charge he never accepted. He was accused of collecting classified information about a company that makes tanks for Russia's war in Ukraine.
A few weeks ago his trial took place in a Russian court and the journalist was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but he was finally released after 16 months in prison earlier this month.
Before being released from prison in the largest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War, Evan Gershkovich was asked, along with other prisoners to be released with him, to fill out a form for Vladimir Putin apologizing in writing.
After the exchange of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, the FSB decided to show the video of their detention.
— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) August 5, 2024
According to the department, Gershkovich was detained "in police custody" when he tried to get secret information from an employee of "Uralvagonzavod" https://t.co/NBY11rT02u
Video: РЕН TV pic. twitter.com/teTCTPCF9R