The Wall Street Journal has published a handwritten letter from correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia.
“I want to say that I am not losing hope,” the newspaper’s correspondent wrote to his family in the US city of Philadelphia. “I read. I practice sports. And I try to write. Maybe I’ll finally write something good.”
The handwritten letter is dated April 5 and, according to the newspaper, is the first direct contact Gershkovich has had with his family since his arrest in Russia in late March. The letter is written in Russian – the language Gershkovich speaks with his parents, according to the Wall Street Journal.
They immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. “Mom, unfortunately you prepared me well for the food in prison,” the journalist continued, according to the newspaper. The food reminds him of his childhood.
The correspondent was arrested by the FSB secret service at the end of March on charges of espionage in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals. The reporter, born in 1991, is now in custody. If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.
The affair is putting even more strain on the already strained relations between Washington and Moscow. The US has officially ruled the arrest unlawful. (dpa)
