YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) -A shaven-headed Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors on Wednesday in a Russian court where the U.S. journalist is accused of spying.
Prosecutors say the Wall Street Journal reporter gathered secret information on the orders of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency about a company that manufactures tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to 20 years.
Gershkovich, his newspaper and the U.S. government all reject the allegations and say that he was just doing his job as a reporter accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work there.
Journalists were briefly allowed to film the 32-year-old Gershkovich before the start of the proceedings, from which the media are barred. Wearing an open-necked shirt and standing in a glass box, he smiled faintly and nodded at colleagues he recognised.
Closed trials are standard procedure in Russia for cases of alleged treason or espionage involving classified state material, which typically can last several months.
The Kremlin says the case, and the arrangements for it, are a matter for the court, but has stated – without publishing evidence – that Gershkovich was caught “red-handed”.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, Gershkovich and other Americans detained in Russia have been caught up in the gravest crisis between Moscow and Washington for more than 60 years.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is open to the idea of a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich and that contacts with the United States have taken place, but they must remain secret.
The U.S. has accused Russia of conducting “hostage diplomacy”. It has designated Gershkovich and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, as “wrongfully detained” and says it is committed to bringing them home.
REPORTING ASSIGNMENT
The trial is taking place in the city of Yekaterinburg, where officers of the FSB security service arrested Gershkovich on March 29, 2023, while he was eating in a steakhouse. Since then he has spent nearly 16 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
The Wall Street Journal has declined to comment on the purpose of his reporting trip to Russia’s Urals region or on the specific allegation by prosecutors that Gershkovich was trying to gather information on Uralvagonzavod, a supplier of tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“He was there as an accredited journalist, doing his job,” Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour told Reuters in an phone interview on the eve of the trial, which he described as a sham.
Many Western news organisations pulled staff out of Russia after Putin sent his army into Ukraine in February 2022 in what he called a “special military operation”. Soon afterwards, Russia passed laws that set long prison terms for “discrediting” the armed forces or spreading “fake news” about them.
Gershkovich was one of a small number of Western reporters, also including journalists from Reuters, who continued to report from inside Russia.
Another journalist, Russian-American Alsu Kurmasheva, was arrested last year and is awaiting trial on charges of violating Russia’s “foreign agent” law and spreading false information about the armed forces, which she denies.
Earlier this month a French researcher, Laurent Vinatier, was arrested in Moscow and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent while gathering information about the Russian military.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)
