Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was brutally put in a headlock and forced to the ground when he was cuffed by Russia’s feared intelligence agency agents last year, newly-released video of his arrest shows.
The journalist, who was finally set free from a Russian prison after last week’s historic prisoner swap deal with Moscow, had been arrested by the plain-clothed FSB intelligence officers on espionage charges in March last year.
The footage of his savage arrest, which was only just published by Russia’s RT TV channel, showed an unsuspecting Gershkovich sitting inside a Yekaterinburg restaurant in a clandestinely bugged source meeting when the agents suddenly stormed in.
At least one agent could be seen gripping Gershkovich in a tight headlock as the reporter winced and struggled to get to his feet while being put in handcuffs.
The cuffed journalist was then forced to lie on his stomach as an officer pinned him down with his knee before he was hauled out of the restaurant in yet another stranglehold, the footage shows.
Just moments before the violent arrest, the video captured Gershkovich discussing the story he was working on with the source.
“The only thing I ask you, please, be very careful because this is classified information,” the source said in the audio recording published by the Russian outlet.
“We won’t write that we have even seen the documents,” Gershkovich is said to have responded, adding he’d attribute anything to an “anonymous source.”
The Moscow-based journalist, who at the time was reporting on the Wagner mercenary group, ended up being arrested on espionage charges.
The FSB later accused him of collecting information for the CIA – the first allegation of spying leveled against a US reporter since the Cold War.
Gershkovich, the US government and his employer all repeatedly — and strenuously — denied the allegations but he was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The clip of his arrest emerged just days after Gershkovich, now 32, finally stepped back on US soil for the first time last Thursday after 16 months behind bars.
Gershkovich was among the slew of prisoners freed as part of the largest multi-country prisoner swap since the Cold War.
He was greeted by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris when he touched down at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before being reunited with his loved ones.