Evan Gershkovich – a pawn in the complex game of hostage diplomacy
In 2017, Evan Gershkovich arrived in Moscow to work at the Moscow Times. Both his parents had emigrated from the USSR in 1979; yet once they’d met and settled in New Jersey, they were determined that their children should grow up knowing their Soviet roots. Evan and his sister Danielle – Vanya and Dusya at home – had Russian lessons every Saturday, even if they made Dusya sob. They watched Soviet cartoons and read Krylov’s fables, not Aesop’s. It wasn’t until Evan chose a career in journalism, however, that Moscow called. Russia, with its habit of newsworthiness, is the gift that keeps on giving to the international press. By 2023, he was making plans to settle permanently in Moscow. The one thing he was not intending was to become a major news story himself.
