Evan Gershkovich, a "Wall Street Journal" reporter imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, for the first time sent a letter to his parents in the United States in which he wrote that "he is not losing hope."
He even joked in the letter about the quality of the food in the prison.
Gershkovich, 31, is the first American journalist to be jailed in Russia on suspicion of espionage since the end of the Cold War.
He was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg, 1,800 km east of Moscow, on March 29. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it opened a case against the reporter for allegedly collecting state secrets on a military-industrial complex. Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal Vernal" denied the things.
He is being held in Leportovo prison in Moscow, where his Russian lawyers are allowed to visit him, but not friends or officials from the US consulate.
"I want to say that I am not losing hope," Gershkovich wrote in a two-page handwritten letter, dated April 5.
His parents, Soviet immigrants living in Philadelphia, received the letter over the weekend.
"I read. I exercise. And I try to write," he wrote.
Evan Gershkovich (photo: screenshot, official website)
Evan Gershkovich (Photo: GettyImages)
Part of the letter he sent to his parents (photo: screenshot, Twitter)
Gershkovich also joked about his mother's cooking abilities: "Mom, unfortunately, for better or for worse, you prepared me well for prison food," it says.
"For breakfast, we get oatmeal or warm wheat porridge. I remember my childhood."
The letter was written in Russian - Gershkovich's native language - and it also stated that he had received a package sent to him from friends in Russia, including clothes, slippers, toiletries and office equipment.
Gershkovich's parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, fled the Soviet Union in 1979.
Gershkovich could receive a twenty-year prison sentence, if convicted.
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