The trial of detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich will be conducted behind closed doors, according to Russian state media citing court services. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter, has been accused by Russian officials of collecting “secret information” from a Russian tank factory on behalf of the CIA, a charge he denies.
The trial is set to commence on 26 June in Yekaterinburg, the city in the Urals where Gershkovich was arrested in March last year. Since his arrest, the 32-year-old has been held in Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison.
The WSJ has dismissed the trial as a “sham,” and US officials have stated that the charges lack “credibility.” Russian prosecutors claim Gershkovich was caught “red-handed” by the FSB state security service, alleging he was attempting to obtain military secrets.
Prosecutors further assert that an investigation revealed Gershkovich collected “secret information” about the “production and repair of military equipment” from a Russian tank factory, and accused him of carrying out illegal actions using “painstaking conspiratorial methods” under the instructions of the CIA.
Gershkovich has spent more than a year in detention on espionage charges that carry a potential 20-year prison sentence. US President Joe Biden has called his detention “totally illegal,” and the WSJ has accused Moscow of “stockpiling Americans in Russian jails to trade them at a later date.”
In addition to Gershkovich, Russia is holding several other US citizens, including journalists and active duty military members, in prisons across the country. Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be detained on spy charges in Russia since the end of the Cold War.
In December, the US State Department reported making a “substantial” offer to secure Gershkovich’s release, which was rejected by Russia. Moscow is reportedly seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was found guilty in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen commander in Berlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to confirm this during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
