Letters to Evan Gershkovich, my friend in a Moscow jail

It costs 20 roubles per page to write to my best friend, 65 for the envelope, 75 more so he has the option to reply. Last month, we were chatting on a beach. Now it’s letters to Lefortovo prison, and a quiet prayer that he will receive them soon.

Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Russia on March 29 and placed in a Moscow jail. I could write that sentence 100 times and it would not seem any less absurd. Evan has been taken hostage by the Russian state. Espionage: that is the excuse it gives for sending a group of plain-clothes thugs to grab our funny friend and push him hooded into a car; that is the reason why he is now forced to sit in a cell, trapped, alone, and waiting.