Fifteen months later Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal journalist was arrested in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage, he returned there for his trial starting Wednesday behind closed doors.
Gershkovich, 32, appeared in court Wednesday morning in a glass cage, with his head shaved and wearing a black and blue checkered shirt.
He Son of immigrants born in the United States. Originally from the USSR, he is the first Western journalist arrested for espionage in post-Soviet Russia. He, his employer, and the U.S. government strongly deny the allegations; The State Department has declared him “unjustly detained,” thus committing the government to decisively seek his release.
The newspaper has worked diligently to keep the case in the public eye and it has become a hot topic in the combative months leading up to the US presidential election.
Since his arrest on March 29, 2023, Gershkovich has been held in Moscow jail. Lefortovo prison, notoriously depressing. He appeared healthy during court hearings in which his appeals for his release were rejected.
“Evan has shown remarkable resilience and strength in the face of this grim situation,” said US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on the one-year anniversary of his arrest.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if the court finds him guilty, which is almost certain. Russian courts convict more than 99% of defendants who appear before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they consider too lenient, and can even appeal acquittals.
Furthermore, Russia’s interpretation of what constitutes espionage is broad. Igor Sutyagin, an arms control expert at a think tank at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was behind bars for espionage for 11 years for transmitting material he claimed was publicly available.
Paul Whelan, an American corporate security executive, was arrested in Moscow for espionage in 2018 and was serving a 16-year sentence.
Gershkovich’s arrest came about a year after President Vladimir Putin pushed through laws that paralyzed journalists, criminalizing criticism of the war in Ukraine and statements seen as discrediting the military. Most foreign journalists left the country after the laws were passed; Many returned in the following months, but there were concerns about whether the Russian authorities would act against them.
After his arrest, fears arose that Russia was targeting the Americans as animosity between Moscow and Washington grew. Last year, Alsou Kurmasheva, a reporter with dual American and Russian citizenship for the U.S. government-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, was arrested for allegedly violating the law requiring so-called “foreign agents” to register.
Another dual national, Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, is on trial, also in Yekaterinburg, on treason charges for allegedly raising money for a Ukrainian organization that supplied weapons and ammunition to kyiv. Several Western journalists were forced to leave after Gershkovich’s arrest because Russia refused to renew their visas.
Now that Gerhkovich’s trial is closed, few details of his case can be made public. But the Russian Prosecutor General’s office said this month that he is accused of “gathering secret information” on CIA orders about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other equipment. military.
Uralvagonzavod is not only strategically sensitive, but has also been a nest of vehement pro-Putin sentiment where a curious American could offend and alarm. In 2011, plant manager Igor Kholmanskikh brought national attention to Putin’s annual call-in show by denouncing mass protests in Moscow at the time. Putin later appointed her as his regional envoy and a member of the National Security Council.
“Evan Gershkovich faces a false and unfounded accusation. …The Russian regime’s smear against Evan is disgusting, repugnant, and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime,” the magazine’s publisher, Almar Latour, and editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said in a statement after his trial date was announced.
“We had hoped to avoid this moment and now hope that the United States government will redouble its efforts to free Evan,” they said.
Russia has not ruled out a prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, but says that is not possible before a verdict is issued in his case. That could be months away, because Russian trials are often postponed for weeks. Post-verdict outlook is mixed.
Although relations between Russia and the United States are highly problematic due to the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin and Washington reached an agreement in 2022 that freed WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was serving a nine-and-a-half-year sentence for possession of cannabis.
But that exchange also freed the United States’ highest-value Russian prisoner, arms dealer Viktor Bout, and the United States may not have another such strong card. Putin has alluded to interest in freeing Vadim Krasikov, a Russian jailed in Germany for murdering a Chechen rebel leader in Berlin, but Germany’s willingness to help in a dispute between Russia and the United States is uncertain.
The Biden administration would also be sensitive to appearing to reveal too much after receiving substantial criticism by swapping Bout, widely called “the Merchant of Death,” for a sports figure.
But Biden may feel an incentive to secure Gershkovich’s release because of boasts by former President Donald Trump, who is his main rival in this year’s election, that he can easily secure the journalist’s release. Putin “will do that for me, but not for anyone else,” Trump said in May.
The Kremlin, however, says it has not been in contact with Trump, and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Pekov bristled at the attention paid to a possible exchange, saying that “these contacts must be carried out in complete secrecy.”
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