US reporter Evan Gershkovich’s closed-door espionage trial begins in Russia

US journalist Evan Gershkovich’s closed-door trial for espionage began in Russia on Wednesday, 15 months after his shock arrest on charges he, his employer and the White House reject as false. The Wall Street Journal correspondent became the first Western journalist to be arrested for spying in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained in March 2023 on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich smiled and greeted journalists in Yekaterinburg’s Sverdlovsk Regional Court with a barely audible “hi”, as he stood inside the glass defendants’ cage. He wore a dark checked shirt and jeans, his head shaven. Gershkovich was later taken away, and private court proceedings began shortly afterwards. After several hours of closed proceedings, the court said the next session would take place on August 13 – an indication the case will drag on for months. Russian prosecutors accused Gershkovich of working for the CIA and “collecting secret information” about the country’s main tank manufacturer in the Urals – claims Washington says are fabricated. The Kremlin has provided no public evidence for the allegations, saying only that he was caught “red-handed”. If convicted, Gershkovich could face 20 years in a penal colony. The 32-year-old spent almost 15 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison following his arrest. Gershkovich, his newspaper and the US. government all reject the allegations and say that he was just doing his job as a reporter accredited by the Foreign Ministry to work in Russia. “This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man,” Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a letter to readers. The US embassy said in a statement: “His case is not about evidence, procedural norms, or the rule of law. It is about the Kremlin using American citizens to achieve its political objectives.” The US State Department said the accusations against him had “zero credibility”, while the Wall Street Journal said he was arrested for “simply doing his job”. Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad. Judge Andrei Mineyev is presiding over the court proceedings, held behind closed doors, as is typical for espionage cases. Despite the charges against him, the reporter has appeared cheerful and smiled in previous hearings. In one instance, he was caught smiling to a man in a balaclava who led him, handcuffed, through the snow. President Vladimir Putin has hinted he wants to see Gershkovich freed as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US, seeking the release of a Russian man jailed in Germany for killing an exiled Chechen separatist commander. Moscow on Wednesday declined to comment over a possible prisoner swap. “We cannot talk about any signals, and we can only repeat that this topic really likes silence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The investigation is under way, the trial is under way, so here we just need to wait for the verdict that will be delivered,” he added. Russian officials have previously said talks on a possible exchange deal could only take place after a court verdict. US President Joe Biden, who hailed Gershkovich as courageous for his reporting in Russia, has said his administration will work “every day” to bring the reporter home. Gershkovich’s parents, who fled repression in the Soviet Union and settled in the US in the 1970s, said this year that they were counting on a “very personal promise” from Biden. “We know that he is innocent of what he is being accused of,” his father Mikhail Gershkovich told the Wall Street Journal in a video interview in March. Russia holds other US citizens in its jails, including marine Paul Whelan, in prison for more than five years on spying charges, and US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was detained last year while visiting family. Raised in New Jersey and a fluent Russian speaker, Gershkovich reported from Russia for six years and stayed there even as dozens of other Western journalists left in the wake of Moscow’s Ukraine offensive. He moved to the Russian capital in 2017 to work for small English-language newspaper The Moscow Times, where he produced some of the outlet’s biggest stories on a shoestring budget. He then worked for Agence France-Presse before becoming a Moscow correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, weeks before the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine. In the job, he reported on how the conflict was affecting ordinary Russians, speaking to the families of dead soldiers. His friends say he was determined to stay in Russia as long as possible. There has been a major campaign to release Gershkovich, with many of his supporters praising his resilience while behind bars. The Gershkovich family has also said it is staying strong. “He knows that we are doing well, and we are strong,” his mother Ella Milman told the Wall Street Journal in March. “He put the bar up high, and we need to follow his example.” Her son “still worries about us” from prison, she said, adding that he was “exercising, meditating and reading a lot” in Moscow’s Lefortovo. “He is managing the best way he can.” Additional reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters

US reporter Evan Gershkovich’s closed-door espionage trial begins in Russia

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}The shaven-headed Wall Street Journal correspondent appeared briefly before journalists in a Russian court at the start of his trial

The shaven-headed Wall Street Journal correspondent appeared briefly before journalists in a Russian court at the start of his trial