Evan Gershkovich, Detained for 250 Days, Is Still Bringing His Friends Together

At least once a day, every day, for the past 250 days, Polina Ivanova is overcome with the troubling thought of Evan Gershkovich staring at the wall of his prison cell.

Ivanova, a Russia correspondent for the Financial Times, will be enjoying a meal with friends in Berlin, watching the sunset or traveling to a new city. Then the image creeps in of her close friend, whose view of the world has seldom stretched physically beyond the confines of his cell at Lefortovo prison in Moscow since the early spring.

“I feel like I’ve lived half a life” since he was detained, Ivanova said.