US journalist Evan Gershkovich has gone on trial in Russia on spying charges that have been denounced as a sham by Washington, international press and rights watchdogs and by his employer, the Wall Street Journal.
Hearings began behind closed doors in a court in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, hours after a rare phone call between the US and Russian defence ministers amid deep divisions over the Kremlin’s invasion of pro-western Ukraine.
Mr Gershkovich (32) is the first US journalist to be charged with spying in Russia since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and he faces a possible 20 years in jail for allegedly trying to gather secrets on a Russian tank factory for the CIA.
“Today our colleague Evan Gershkovich faced the Russian regime’s shameful and illegitimate proceedings against him,” said Almar Latour, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and its editor in chief, Emma Tucker. “It’s jarring to see him in yet another courtroom for a sham trial held in secret and based on fabricated accusations. The time to bring Evan home is now, and we continue to demand his immediate release,” they said in a joint statement.
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Mr Gershkovich, with head shaved, was led into the courtroom’s glass box for defendants for a hearing that lasted for more than two hours before the case was adjourned until August.
“Russian authorities have failed to provide any evidence supporting the charges against him, failed to justify his continued detention, and failed to explain why Evan’s work as a journalist constitutes a crime,” the US embassy in Moscow said on social media.
“We have been clear from the start that Evan has done nothing wrong... His case is not about evidence, procedural norms or the rule of law. It is about the Kremlin using American citizens to achieve its political objectives.”
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The embassy accused Moscow of using Mr Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a US citizen who is serving a 16-year sentence for alleged spying, as “bargaining chips”.
Two dual US-Russian citizens, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, were also arrested while visiting relatives in Russia in the last year.
Rachel Denber, deputy director for the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, described Mr Gershkovich’s trial as a “travesty”.
“Russian president Vladimir Putin has intimated that Gershkovich is being considered for a prisoner exchange, making clear that this trial is a cruel performance that has nothing in common with justice,” she said. “It’s an outrage against Gershkovich and a grim marker of how far the Kremlin has erased the rule of law in Russia during Putin’s fifth term as president.”
Russia barred access to 81 European media outlets this week, including The Irish Times and RTÉ, in what it called a response to an EU decision to impose sanctions on four Russian outlets that Brussels described as “Kremlin-linked propaganda networks”.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and new Russian defence minister Andrei Belousov spoke on Tuesday in the first such call since March 2023.
[ Moscow court extends detention of journalist Evan GershkovichOpens in new window ]
The Pentagon said Mr Austin “emphasised the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine”, while Moscow’s defence ministry said Mr Belousov noted “the danger of further escalating the situation through continued supplies of American weapons” to Kyiv.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited troops near the front line in the eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday, and chided unnamed officials who he said “must be here... in difficult communities where people need immediate solutions”.
“I was surprised to learn that some relevant officials have not been here for six months or more. There will be a serious conversation and I will draw appropriate conclusions,” he added.
