From killing political opponents to invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has made lawlessness the signature of his rule in Russia. The arrest of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich is the latest escalation.
The Russian regime’s years-long descent into lawlessness and autocratic rule prepared the way for the arrest of a Wall Street Journal reporter.was detained
on false charges of espionage on March 29, 2023, in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Vladimir Putin’s government has been harassing Russian journalists, through intimidation, arrest and murder, since he came to power in 2000. But the fact that Mr. Gershkovich is the first accredited American journalist to be arrested in Russia since the end of the Cold War has brought an unusual degree of international attention to his arrest—as those who signed off on it must have wished.
Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest attests to two long-term trends in Russia. The first is Mr. Putin’s arrival at unmitigated dictatorship. Today, the Putinist social contract is clear: People in Russia will be left alone by the state only if they do not meaningfully contest the government’s good reputation or decision-making, which is what bona fide journalism does almost by definition.
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