When It Comes to Our Enemy Russia

The Arrest of Evan Gershkovich

The arrest on espionage charges of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich is the most sinister thing that has happened to a Western reporter in Moscow, maybe ever. The harassment, expulsion and occasional detention of correspondents has always been part of the playbook of Kremlin intimidation.

This is different. In the past, the tactic was ominous but was resolved with some retaliatory action by the reporter’s home country. The last major incident, in which Nicholas Daniloff of U.S. News & World Report was accused in September 1986 of having confidential Soviet documents, ended in days with his release after a Soviet diplomat pleaded no lo contendre in New York to a comparable charge.

There were further tit-for-tat expulsions. But in October, President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland in what, in retrospect, was the beginning of the end of the Soviet-American Cold War.

No such detente is possible now. Vladimir Putin is beyond Western influence as the war in Ukraine continues unabated. With Gershkovich’s arrest, Western journalists have been forced - forced — to leave the country. For the first time, coverage of the Kremlin from inside Russia is too dangerous. It is hard to imagine that a retaliatory arrest in the U.S. would improve matters.

There is word of a possible exchange for a Russian in Western custody. But only after Gershkovich is tried, convicted and sentenced. Putin is not remotely interested in a good will gesture or an improvement in East-West relations. What would persuade him to release an American hostage, an accredited correspondent for a major American news organization? Nothing, for now, I can think of.