"It's one of the American qualities that we've made our own to be optimistic, to believe in a +happy ending+," his mother, Ella Milman, told the American business daily.

"But I'm not stupid, I understand what's at stake, but that's what I choose to believe," she added.

Milman and her husband Mikhail Gershkovich fled the Soviet Union separately in 1979 and settled in the US state of New Jersey, where they raised their two children, Evan and his sister Danielle.

The 31-year-old reporter's indictment on espionage charges sparked protests from media outlets, human rights groups and foreign governments.

In this filmed interview, his mother explains that Evan Gershkovich considered it his responsibility to stay in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. He was one of the few Western journalists to continue working in Moscow despite the risks.

"I know he felt it was his duty to inform... He loves Russians. He continues to love them," she said.

For Ella Milman, Gershkovich's recent work on internal thinking within the Kremlin has attracted the attention of the authorities.

"The article that came out about (Vladimir) Putin in December worried me a lot," she added.

The Russian security services (FSB) announced on March 30 the arrest of this Moscow correspondent of the Wall Street Journal and former AFP journalist, who would have been "caught red-handed", according to the authorities, while he was reporting in Yekaterinburg, some 1,800 kilometers east of Moscow.

American journalist Evan Gershkovich (l), accused of spying by Russia, is escorted out of the Lefortovsky court, on March 30, 2023 in Moscow © Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP/Archives

He said, his newspaper, his family and the U.S. government categorically rejected the Russian accusations.

He has since been detained in Lefortovo prison, where he has still not been able to benefit from a consular visit, Moscow having assured "examine the issue".

Joe Biden on Tuesday denounced the detention as "totally illegal" and assured the journalist's relatives that he was working for his release.

© 2023 AFP