Russia to hold US reporter Gershkovich’s closed-door espionage trial

The trial court said on Monday that the jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is accused of gathering intelligence for the U.S. CIA, will face his espionage trial in Russia behind closed doors.

On March 29, 2023, in a steakhouse in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, 1,400 km (900 miles) east of Moscow, Gershkovich, 32, was taken into custody by the Federal Security Service on espionage charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

Gershkovich, an American journalist, was arrested on suspicion of spying in Russia for the first time since the end of the Cold War over thirty years ago. He has refuted the accusations. The Journal disputes that Gershkovich is a spy and that he was only carrying out his duties.

The major KGB replacement from the Soviet era, the FSB, claimed Gershkovich was attempting to gather information for the CIA on Uralvagonzavod, a Russian defense company that is among the largest battle tank manufacturers worldwide.

“The proceedings will occur in private,” the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg declared.

“According to the investigation authorities, the American journalist of The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich, on the instructions of the CIA, in March 2023, collected secret information in the Sverdlovsk region about the activities of the defense enterprise JSC NPK Uralvagonzavod for the production and repair of military equipment.”

The court announced that the first hearing would take place on June 26.

Spokesman for the US State Department Matthew Miller informed reporters that the US was worried the trial would take place behind closed doors.
“We’re worried about it. We’re going to try to make it to the trial, though we’re not sure if that will work out,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the White House, President Joe Biden described Gershkovich’s incarceration as “totally illegal” and termed the charges “ridiculous”.

As per Russia, Gershkovich was apprehended “red-handed”. According to President Vladimir Putin, talks of possibly switching Gershkovich have been discussed with Washington, but they should be kept private from the press.

According to The Journal, Gershkovich was detained while on a reporting trip, and his unfortunate outcome serves as an example of the dangers that journalists encounter when covering important international issues firsthand. It’s insisted on his release.

With this most recent development, a fake trial is about to happen. All parties are expected to work together to get Evan home as soon as possible. Time is critical, the Journal stated.

“The Russian regime’s disgusting smear campaign against Evan is predicated on deliberate and blatant lies. Evan’s case represents an attack on the free press, and journalism is not a crime.”

GIFT FUND?

Since hopes of friendship were heightened following the conclusion of the Cold War with the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Gershkovich’s arrest served as an example of how much relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated during the Ukraine war.

Nearly all American journalists are no longer in Russia. According to U.S. diplomats, Gershkovich was not a spy and was placed under arrest by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in order to accumulate American citizens who might be exchanged for Russians held in the West.

Paul Whelan, an ex-Marine who was seized in Moscow in 2018 and given a 16-year prison sentence for espionage in 2020, is one of the Americans in custody.

Putin made a suggestion in February—though he did not specifically name Krasikov—that Gershkovich be exchanged for Vadim Krasikov, who was found guilty of killing a Chechen dissident in Berlin in 2019.

Putin claimed in March that just a few days prior to Alexei Navalny’s mysterious death on February 16 at a Russian prison, he had discussed the possibility of exchanging places with the opposition leader.

Born to Soviet émigrés and raised in New Jersey, Gershkovich speaks Russian fluently. In late 2017, he came to Moscow to work for the English-language Moscow Times. Later, he joined the staff of the French news agency Agence France-Presse.

It was unclear if Gershkovich intended to report on Uralvagonzavod, a company situated in Nizhny Tagil, on his reporting trip to the Urals.

Situated in the center of the Urals, the company is home to some of Russia’s most classified weapons research and production facilities. It’s a subsidiary of Rostec, the massive Russian defense company headed by Sergei Chemezov, a friend of Vladimir Putin.