Evan Gershkovich ’14 Uncovers the Russian Spy Unit That Detained Him

In a Wall StreetJournal article published this week, Gershkovich and three of his colleagues described the work of Moscow's Department for Counterintelligence Operations, known as DKRO, which is reported to be "at the very core of Putin's opaque wartime regime."

The agency, we are told, spearheaded a campaign to arrest American citizens on Russian soil, including basketball star Brittney Griner. Gershkovich also details how he and fellow American detainee Paul Whelan were used as "trade bait" to secure the release of Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov from a jail in Germany.

The WSJ investigation uncovers the "enormous and unreported role" DKRO played in "plunging Russia into its biggest wave of repression since the demise of Joseph Stalin, including a purge of the Defense Ministry after Putin's invasion of Ukraine faltered."

Among the article's findings is an account of how DRKO also led efforts "to harass and surveil Western diplomats in Russia, even pressuring students in the US Embassy high school to spy on their classmates." Read more.

On August 1, 2024, Gershkovich was released as part of a prisoner exchange after spending sixteen months in Russian detention, where he was facing unsubstantiated charges of espionage.