‘The Wall Street Journal’ denies the accusations against him, as does his employer, but despite this he has been incarcerated for more than a year.
The American journalist Evan Gershkovichimprisoned for more than a year in Russia for espionage, will be tried in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, as reported this Thursday by the Russian authorities.
The accusation against the journalist The Wall Street Journal has been completed and his case has been filed before the Sverdlovsky Regional Court, in the city located about 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow, according to Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office.
Russia reveals details of accusation for the first time
Gershkovich is accused of “gathering secret information” on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States about Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the Sverdlovsk region that manufactures and repairs military equipment, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement, revealing for the first time the details of the accusations against it.
The functionaries they did not provide evidence that support the accusations. It was not known when the trial would begin.
Gershkovich was detained during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and accused of spying for the United States. The journalist, his employer and the US government denied the allegations, and Washington called his detention “unfair“.
Case related to a tank factory
He Federal Security Serviceor FSB, alleged at the time that it was acting on orders from the United States to collect state secrets, but did not provide evidence either.
Uralvagonzavod, a state tank factory and railway carriages located in the city of Nizhny Tagil, about 100 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg, became known in 2011-12 as a bastion of support for the president Vladimir Putin.
The plant foreman, Igor Kholmanskih, appeared on Putin’s annual phone-in show in December 2011 and denounced the mass protests taking place in Moscow at the time as a threat to “stability”, proposing that he and his colleagues travel to the capital to help suppress the riots. A week later, Putin appointed Kholmanskikh as his envoy to the region.
Possible exchange for a Russian imprisoned in Germany
Putin has said he believed a deal could be reached to free Gershkovich, hinting he would be open to swapping him for a citizen. Chechen imprisoned in Germany, who appeared to be Vadim Krasikov. He is serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.
Asked last week by The Associated Press Regarding Gershkovich, Putin said the United States is “taking strong measures” to secure his release. He told international news agencies in St. Petersburg that such releases “are not decided through the mass media” but through an “approach discreet, calm and professional. And, of course, they should only be decided on the basis of reciprocity,” she added, alluding to a possible prisoner exchange.
The Biden administration has attempted to negotiate his release, but the Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that it would only consider a prisoner swap. after the verdict of his judgment.
Up to 20 years in prison
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
He is the first American journalist arrested for espionage since Nicholas Daniloff, in 1986, in the middle of the Cold War. Gershkovich’s arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country had enacted increasingly repressive laws against freedom of expression after sending troops to Ukraine.
The son of Soviet emigrants living in New Jersey, Gershkovich spoke fluent Russian and moved to the country in 2017 to work at the newspaper The Moscow Times before being hired by the WSJ in 2022.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has been secluded in the Moscow prison of Lefortovo, a notorious tsarist-era prison used during the purges of Josef Stalinwhen executions were carried out in his basement.
The American ambassador Lynne Tracywho regularly visited Gershkovich in prison and attended his trial hearings, has described the charges against him as “fiction” and has said that Russia is “using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”
Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russian authorities have detained several American citizens and other Westerners, which seems to reinforce that idea.
It is not the only case of a journalist accused of espionage in Europe
The Spanish journalist Pablo Gonzalez He has been detained in Poland since February 2022 on charges of being a Russian spy. Poland has extended his imprisonment in nine occasions without presenting evidence of the accusation.
ADVERTISINGGonzález’s wife, The Highest Junglehas reported that, together with his son, he was able to visit him for two hours in the presence of members of the Polish secret services. It is the third meeting they have had in the two years and four months that he has been in the Polish prison.
The Polish authorities have not even indicated trial date nor have they presented evidence of the crimes of which González is accused.
