Evan Gershkovich appears in court in Moscow on April 18, 2023. (For The Washington Post)
The parents of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia for nearly a year, will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech on Thursday as guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., his office said in a statement Wednesday.
“I’m honored to host Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich for the State of the Union address,” Johnson said in the statement. “By hosting Evan’s parents, Congress will shine a spotlight on the unjust detention of their son. The United States must always stand for freedom of the press around the world, especially in places like Russia, where it is under assault. The Administration must bring Evan home.”
Members of Congress often bring notable guests to accompany them to State of the Union addresses.
In early March 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning what it deemed as “fake” news. Days later, Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen assigned to the Journal’s bureau in Moscow, was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB. It accused him of being a spy for the United States and gathering information about a Russian military enterprise but did not cite any evidence.
At the time, Gershkovich was on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals, roughly 880 miles east of Moscow. The Journal has forcefully denied the allegations as baseless, and U.S. officials have said they are trying to persuade Russian officials to release him. The White House has said Gershkovich is “wrongfully detained.”
In December, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that talks were continuing with Moscow to “get Evan and Paul [Whelan, another jailed American] home where they belong.”
Last month, the Moscow City Court denied one of Gershkovich’s latest efforts to appeal his detention, according to the U.S. ambassador in Russia, Lynne Tracy.
“The charges against Evan are absolutely baseless,” Tracy said in a statement. “The Russian government locked Evan up for simply reporting news.” She added: “The United States will not rest until Evan and Paul are safely at home with their family and friends.”
