good evening and thanks for joining us for a special edition of NJ Spotlight news I'm Banna Vannozi tonight we're marking a grim anniversary March 29th one year since Princeton native and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan gershkovich was arrested while on assignment in Russia and accused of being a spy a charge he the journal and the US government vehemently deny gershkovich is the first American journalist to be detained by Russian authorities since the Cold War the 32-year-old was accredited by Russia's foreign Ministry to work as a reporter for the journal's Moscow Bureau at the time he was taken into custody the US Department of State immediately declaring it a wrongful detention demanding his release in the 365 days since Evans been held at the infamous lovo aalin ARA prison in Moscow and pre-trial detention has been extended several times the most recent extension handed down just this week until at least June 30th if convicted he could face up to 20 years in a Russian prison to mark this one year since his arrest we take a deeper look starting with senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan who sat down with fellow journalists to reflect on Evans mission in Moscow and the swell of global determination to free Evan the Striking display for Evan gershkovich a collage of front pages from The Wall Street Journal tells you he's still a presence in their Newsroom each each page represents one day since Russian security agents arrested the journal's Moscow reporter on trumped up Espionage charges and jailed him in a notorious Stalin era prison on March 29th colleagues will post the 365th page here marking one year it's a shark reminder of this is almost a physical manifestation of what one year without Evan is it's a grim Milestone that no one wants to reporter Caitlyn ost's a friend who covers Financial Tech in a newsroom where images of Evan pop up everywhere she met him at the journal's London Bureau and says news of his arrest seeing Evan standing captive behind glass in a Russian courtroom hit her physically it's all of the air kind of leaves your body and it's not that you never think something like that can happen it's just it's the worst fear that you could have ever imagined coming true everyone understood the stakes and the he wasn't casual about it not at all Joshua yaa wrote from Moscow for the New Yorker and says Evan the American born son of Russian immigrates who moved to the US not only spoke the language like a native he also felt driven to report on the people he liked Moscow played soccer with folks there and even as Vladimir Putin tightened his grip launching the invasion of Ukraine Evan stayed filing news stories on everything Russia's war in Ukraine and how that was changing Russian politics Society economy kind of everything in Russia still everything kind of happens in the shadow of the warmth he loves Russia he loves the people he wanted to be there and tell those stories and he was incredible at it he was doing journalism in Russia in a time when it was the most closed off to the world than at any point since the collapse of the Soviet Union Anton troyanovsky is Moscow bureau chief for the New York Times like all of Evan's colleagues he can't pinpoint why Russia picked Evan to arrest the spokesman for the Kremlin and for Vladimir Putin comes out and says that Evan was caught red-handed this was clearly done with the express approval of the Kremlin of Putin in a February interview with Tucker Carlson Putin frankly indicated he's open to swapping prisoners in 2022 Russia released American basketball star Britney Griner in exchange for a jailed Russian arms dealer called The Merchant of death I feel like the veil has dropped on the side of the Russian State and Putin spe personally and he's made the the game clear this is a hostage situation with Evan to be traded for someone Russia wants backdoor diplomatic negotiations continue house speaker speaker Mike Johnson invited Evan's parents to the State of the Union addressed President Biden's on the record in support of bringing Evan home well I'm serious about prisoner exchange I'm serious about doing all we can to free Americans being illegally held in Russia or anywhere else for that matter and that process is underway this public show of solidarity serves to keep Evans case out front but it's also a reminder for journalists there but for the grace of God that's a thought that haunts Evan's colleagues it could have been any of us it happened to be Evan and I feel a great uh burden and duty to him for that reason that that he has spent a year in Russian prison we're doing the work we all do and so his colleagues Lobby fiercely for evans's release he's appeared in Russian Court several times but no trial dates been set and Russia generally won't agree to prisoner exchanges until it gets a criminal conviction and I have to say that he's been looking extremely strong um and and I know that that he does have the strength uh to get through this this incredibly unimaginably awful ordeal he's a great friend he's a great colleague uh he's an incredible journalist um and he's one of the best people you'll ever meet just really want my friend home you know and we're gonna keep pushing until it happens Caitlyn osto says when he comes back they'll gather up all these front pages so Evan can catch up on the news he missed and they'll catch up with the friend they've missed I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]