Russia sends Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich’s case to trial

US journalist Evan Gershkovich inside a defendants’ cage after a hearing in April 2024. (Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)

• Russia intends to put US journalist Evan Gershkovich on trial for espionage.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested he could be freed in a prisoner swap.
• The US effectively considers Gershkovich a political hostage.

Russian prosecutors sent US journalist Evan Gershkovich’s case to court on Thursday, paving the way for him to be tried on espionage charges rejected by his employer and the White House as a sham.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and has been held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison since.

In a statement Thursday, Russia’s prosecutor general accused him of working for the CIA and “collecting secret information” about tank maker Uralvagonzavod in the Sverdlovsk region where he was arrested.

It said it had sent a criminal case against him to Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg “for consideration on its merits”, without saying when a trial would take place.

The United States said the charges had “zero credibility” and the Wall Street Journal slammed Russia’s announcement as “outrageous”.

“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,” the Journal’s chief editor Emma Tucker and top executives said in a statement.

Moscow had previously not provided any public details of its case against Gershkovich, saying only that he was “caught red-handed”.

Gershkovich became the first Western journalist since the Soviet era to be arrested for spying in Russia when he was detained.

The 32-year-old faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

‘Zero credibility’

Russia’s latest move drew a fierce backlash from Washington, which declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained” last year.

The label effectively means the White House regards him as a political hostage.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists on Thursday the charges against Gershkovich had “zero credibility”.

“We have been clear from the start that Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place,” Miller said.

“The charges against him are false, and the Russian government knows that they are false. He should be released immediately,” he added.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also called for the reporter’s release, saying he had been “conducting his work as a journalist for free media”.

Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in February he would like to see Gershkovich freed as part of a prisoner exchange and that talks were ongoing.

But the Russian leader made clear he wanted any deal to involve the release of a Russian jailed in Germany for killing a Chechen dissident.

Among other US nationals detained in Russia is reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, detained last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent”. Her employers denounced the case against her as politically motivated.

Former US marine Paul Whelan, in prison in Russia since 2018 and serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges, is also pushing to be included in any future prisoner exchange.

Gershkovich’s family told AFP earlier this year they were counting on a “very personal” promise from President Joe Biden to bring him home.

At Lefortovo prison, the reporter shares a small cell with another inmate.

He gets an hour-long walk in a small prison yard every day, tries to stay fit through exercise and relies on fruit and vegetables sent by friends to supplement the meagre prison diet.