American journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in March 2023 on what many in the West consider trumped-up charges by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repressive government.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on Putin to release Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested during a reporting trip in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government have vehemently denied the allegations.
After more than a year in pre-trial detention, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday that Gershkovich’s case will be sent to the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, in the city where he was detained, for trial on an unspecified date.
The prosecutor’s office said Gershkovich’s indictment on espionage charges was finalized after an investigation by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB.
It said he “acted in accordance with CIA instructions” and “collected classified information” about the manufacturer Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the region that produces and repairs military equipment. He added that “illegal actions were carried out by Gershkovich in compliance with careful secrecy measures.”
Russian authorities have not presented evidence to support their accusations, which were first revealed in Thursday’s statement.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
In a joint statement, Dow Jones CEO and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker said they “hoped to avoid this moment.”
“Evan Gershkovich faces a false and unfounded accusation,” he said. “Russia’s latest move toward a mock trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and yet no less outrageous. Evan spent 441 days unjustly detained in a Russian prison simply for doing his job.”
Gershkovich’s arrest has been condemned by journalists and government officials across the West, who see it as emblematic of Putin’s war on freedom of expression, both in Russia and abroad.
The US designated Gershkovich as unjustly detained, with Ambassador Lynne Tracy stating at a hearing in March that “the accusations against Evan are categorically false.”
But Putin signaled he believed a deal could be reached to free Gershkovich.
A possible exchange was underway that could have resulted in the release of Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, sources told NBC News in February.
The swap was not considered imminent when Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony was announced on Feb. 16, five sources told NBC News.
Gershkovich was held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison, known for its harsh conditions. His multiple appeals were rejected in court and an earlier announcement said his pre-trial detention had been extended until at least June 30.
During these court appearances, Gershkovich often smiles and appears in good spirits. But his detention took a toll on his family.
“It’s been difficult,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, told NBC News in March to mark the anniversary of his arrest. “He spent four seasons there, spent his birthday and all the holidays. We want him to return home as soon as possible.”
His parents left the then Soviet Union for the USA during the Cold War. He and his older sister grew up speaking Russian at home, and the family calls him “Vanya,” short for his Russian name, Ivan.
His interest in Russia motivated his decision to move there in 2017 to work as a journalist.
But everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the family said. Like many other foreign reporters, wary of Russia’s tightening control over press freedom, Gershkovich moved abroad, although he returned regularly for reporting trips.
Since her arrest, another Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, has also been detained, along with several other US citizens. The US government has said this is a deliberate strategy by Putin to use them as geopolitical pawns.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
