Evan is a respected American reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who has been wrongfully detained by Russia since March 29, 2023.

BACKGROUND

He is the son of Soviet-born Jewish émigrés who settled and raised him in New Jersey. Evan's fascination with Russia stemmed from his earliest years speaking Russian and practicing Russian traditions. At his high school in Princeton, New Jersey, Evan was a top student and avid soccer player who captained the team in his senior year and led it to a state championship.

JOURNALISM

After graduating from Bowdoin College, Evan moved to New York City to break into journalism, working as a cook for a catering company to pay off his student loans. In 2016, he was hired by the New York Times as a news assistant. He moved to Russia in 2017 to begin his international reporting career at the Moscow Times. Evan won awards for his reporting, including coverage of the environmental impact on salmon populations and the preservation of minority languages in Russia.

Evan joined the Wall Street Journal in January 2022 and traveled to the Belarus-Ukraine border a month later, becoming the only American reporter to witness the first wounded Russian forces being taken home.

WRONGFUL DETENTION

On March 29, 2023, Evan was wrongfully detained by Russia on patently false espionage charges while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a city around 800 miles east of Moscow.

The US Department of state determined his arrest to be a "wrongful detention", and his arrest has been widely condemned by the Biden administration, press freedom groups, and news organizations across the world. All demand his immediate release.

Evan is currently being held in Lefortovo prison, run by the Russian Federal Security Bureau, with minimal access to the outside world. His trial will be held behind closed doors, and he faces up to 20 years in Russian prison.