Some institutions, such as the BBC, quickly resumed their work in the country; others, like Bloomberg News, never came back. Newspapers that once had permanent offices in Moscow began rotating correspondents to and from safer posts such as Berlin and Dubai. However, even in difficult circumstances, Western correspondents hoped that their work could continue.
That hope was dashed last week by the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovic, believed to be the first American reporter detained on espionage charges in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Journal denies the charges against Gershkovich, 31, the son of Soviet Jewish immigrants, and the Biden administration has pushed for his release.
Regardless of the outcome of the Gershkovic case, his arrest sent an undeniable signal that foreign reporters are once again vulnerable. Now, news organizations are re-examining how to cover one of the world’s most pressing geopolitical stories as their journalists face even greater danger.
“It has a chilling effect on everyone,” said Polina Ivanova, Russia correspondent for the Financial Times, at a recent meeting of journalists in London, where participants lined up to write letters of support to be delivered to Gershkovic in Lefortovo prison in Moscow.
“It’s very difficult to know what the security situation is when you’re working in a place like Russia, especially when things change very, very quickly,” Ms Ivanova said. “You have to constantly reassess and try to make a wise calculation about the risks, based on signs and signals and things that are sometimes just in the tea leaves.”
Gershkovic had been accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry, a process that continued even after the invasion of Ukraine and was believed to provide some degree of protection for Western journalists. But the action against Gershkovic has shaken that assumption. Since his arrest, the Journal’s Moscow bureau chief has left the country. The New York Times, whose journalists regularly traveled to Russia, currently has no reporters in the country.
American journalists, in particular, feared they might be detained by Russian authorities to instigate a prisoner exchange. Correspondents who are European citizens were perceived as slightly less vulnerable. The Gershkovic episode shows that all bets are off now.
“It is very clear that no foreign correspondent will be spared from this crackdown,” said Gulnoza Said, who monitors press freedom in Russia for the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The world is losing this window into Russia, and the Russian people are losing one of the few platforms where they can be heard.”
On Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, issued a rare joint statement calling on Russia to immediately release Gershkovic. “Journalism is not a crime,” the leaders wrote.
For a nation increasingly seen as an avatar of repression and autocracy, Russia has until recently given Western correspondents considerable leeway in reporting on its politics, society and culture. Reporters assumed their movements and communications were being monitored. But starting in the mid-1980s, Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s reforms meant that Western journalists could interview civilians and cultivate sources within the administration.
David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, said the current situation was “180 degrees different” from his experience as a young reporter in Moscow between 1988 and 1992.
“Of course our phones were tapped, of course our apartments were tapped,” Remnick said in an interview. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was after us, our travels were restricted. That said, I reported incredibly freely compared to what had happened in the whole Soviet experience.”
Inside Russia, news reported by Western media was sometimes picked up by Russian state news agencies, and local journalists felt encouraged to cite foreign accounts when questioning state authorities.
For the Kremlin, the presence of journalists from prominent institutions such as the BBC, CNN and Agence France-Presse was seen as a sign of the government’s legitimacy and influence on the world stage. Foreign outlets have also provided a vehicle through which Mr. Putin’s government has sought to shape its global image and appeal directly to a Western elite.
The invasion of Ukraine obviously changed that calculus. Gershkovic’s arrest showed that Putin – who has made elaborate efforts to hide Russia’s struggles in Ukraine from the public eye – may find it less and less useful to host foreign journalists.
Inside Russia now, “propaganda is total,” said the FT’s Ivanova. “It went from being a very strong voice to being the only voice, and that’s kind of the transition that Russia has gone through in the last year.”
As local Russian journalists have been repressed or exiled, Western news agencies have sought ways to maintain aggressive coverage. Numerous organizations – including the BBC, CNN, Reuters and others – still have correspondents on the ground in Moscow. Many reporters have cultivated a hybrid approach, supplementing occasional visits with remote Internet reporting and encrypted communications to stay in touch with sources. In Ukraine, journalists continue to cover the conflict from the front line.
Bill Keller, who reported in Moscow for The Times from 1986 to 1991, said Mr Gershkovic’s arrest – a “hostage-taking”, in Mr Keller’s view – was a clear attempt to intimidate foreign reporters and Russian citizens who could talk to them.
“It may prolong the downsizing of foreign news bureaus in Russia, but it won’t stop reporting from surrounding countries,” said Keller, who later served as executive editor of The Times. Journalists covering Russia from abroad, he added, can now be based in closer areas such as the Baltic states and Ukraine, which in past generations were under Moscow’s control.
Ms. Ivanova, who helped galvanize support for Mr. Gershkovic and secure his freedom, said that “to the extent possible,” media organizations would try “to operate on the ground as long as possible.”
“Obviously, this comes with great challenges, and this computational process is very difficult, and sometimes things come at you that you didn’t expect at all,” she said. “But on-the-spot reporting is absolutely essential.”
