Moon of Alabama – Aug 1, 2024       

Russia today released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a prisoner exchange with the U.S., Belarus and Germany:

Russia will soon release multiple political prisoners, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, according to Bloomberg News.
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Among those prisoners is Gershkovich, who was convicted in July of espionage and sentenced to 16 years on charges that both the Wall Street Journal and the US government reject as made-up.
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Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, where he was accused of spying for the US. He has been behind bars ever since.

Yekaterinburg is a major Russia weapon manufacturing center. According to his colleagues Gershkovich went there to interview local lawmakers  and random workers from weapon factories. As I analyzed at that time, Gershkovich’s questions about Russian weapon production during a time of war did not seemed consistent with mere reporting:

[T]his was about more than just asking random workers:

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was interested in operation of military-industrial complex facilities in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly deputy Vycheslav Vegner, whom the reporter interviewed earlier, told TASS Thursday.

“[During the interview, Gershkovich] started asking questions regarding the military-industrial complex of Yekaterinburg, he named one such enterprise – ‘Novator’- and so on,” Vegner said.

According to the lawmaker, the reported cited the experience of other regions on industry conversion and asked about the Sverdlovsk Region experience – for example, whether the enterprises change their profile, how many shifts there are, and if they are appropriately staffed. Vegner noted during the interview that he is not authorized to answer such question.

Anything about weapon production numbers or related issues are of course state secrets, at least during times of war. What then do we call such inquiries if not espionage?

Novator, the company Gershkovich asked about, is a major designer and producer of Russia’s long range air defense systems.

Russian authorities also claim that Gershkovich was caught while receiving secret data from a Russian source.

From the very beginning of the case the U.S. government had shown an extraordinary interest in it.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal kept insisting that Gershkovich was not spying on Russia.

How would they even know that?

Daniel McAdams @DanielLMcAdams – 4:30 UTC · Aug 1, 2024

Why won’t the Wall Street Journal even make a cursory effort to refute the Russian charges? What was he doing there, meeting with Russian sources asking technical questions about Russian tank production? Was he Operation Mockingbird? Why won’t our own side come clean?

Nahh – don’t ever expect that to happen – unless, maybe 20 years from now.

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