American journalist Evan Gershkovich’s trial on espionage charges will start next week behind closed doors in Russia. Gershkovich, a Russia-based reporter with The Wall Street Journal newspaper, was arrested in March 2023 in the country’s Yekaterinburg city in the Urals mountains. Last week, the Russian prosecutors charged him with working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gershkovich is the first journalist to be jailed in Russia like this since the Cold War era. He faces up to 20 years in jail if he is found guilty, according to AFP.
The WSJ and the US government have both rejected the allegation that Gershkovich was spying in Russia. They have said that the Russian case against Gershkovich has “zero credibility”. “Evan Gershkovich is facing a false and baseless charge. Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,” said WSJ’s Publisher Almar Latour and Editor in Chief Emma Tucker in a statement.
According to Russian prosecutors, Gershkovich was caught red-handed while collecting secret information. They allege that he was gathering information on a Russian tank factory on behalf of the CIA, as reported by BBC News. The prosecutors claim their investigation revealed that Gershkovich had collected “secret information” about the “production and repair of military equipment” from the tank factory. They accuse him of carrying out “illegal actions using painstaking conspiratorial methods” on the instructions of the CIA.
