In his first detailed account, US reporter Evan Gershkovich says his 2023 arrest in Russia was a carefully planned sting by the FSB. While reporting in Yekaterinburg, he was set up by a source and arrested by masked agents. He was later sentenced to 16 years in prison but freed in a prisoner swap in August 2024. Gershkovich believes the FSB aimed to convince President Putin he was a spy.
We’ll perform a deep-dive analysis of all sources and publicly available external materials, then prepare a structured timeline of events, an in-depth report explaining the background and context, and multiple perspectives.