Evan Gershkovich’s bogus trial shows us the real face of rogue tyrant Putin
WSJ correspondent Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg's Sverdlovsk Regional Court, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 26 June 2024. STRINGER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
As Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich begins his Kafkaesque espionage show trial in Russia, it’s time to stop tip-toeing around an obvious truth: Russia is not a civilized power. It’s a rogue state run by a power-mad tyrant.
The charges against Gershkovich, that he was spying for Washington while in Yekaterinburg in March 2023, are bogus beyond belief; he’s a journalist, not a spy, and Russia has refused to provide any evidence to back its claims.
Yet he faces a near-certain guilty verdict in Russia’s kangaroo courts, which convict more than 99% of all accused.
Putin has already hinted at using Gershkovich in a prisoner swap to free convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov, pointing to the true reason for his arrest: hostage-taking.
Nor is Putin’s persecution of Gershowitz unique: Consider Arseny Turbin.
The boy’s just 15, but will spend the next five years of his young life in prison, labeled as the country’s “youngest terrorist,” for the “crime” of opposing Bloody Vlad’s invasion of Ukraine.
Not to mention the “mysterious” death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony in February.
Russia has no rule of law, just the whims of a paranoid, warmongering madman.
Yet some commentators still treat Putin as someone who can be placated; they argue that the United States goaded him into war, and that his actions are reasonable.
Nonsense: Putin is pure evil; only fear can deter him; only outright battlefield defeat can stop him.
Washington should double-down on efforts to bring Evan home; we can’t abandon an American journalist who was fearlessly doing his job.
But don’t pretend that treating Russia like a sane state does anything but empower Mad Vlad.