The shaven-headed Ivan Gershkovitch went on trial behind closed doors in a Russian court on Wednesday, where the American journalist is accused of espionage.
Prosecutors say the Wall Street Journal reporter collected classified information on orders from the US Central Intelligence Agency about a company that made tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Gershkovitch, his newspaper and the US government have all rejected the allegations, saying he was just doing his job as a reporter accredited to work there by Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
“Her 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,” the US embassy in Moscow said in a statement, calling for Gershkovich’s immediate release.
After several hours of closed-door proceedings, the court said the next hearing would be on August 13 – an indication that the case would drag on for months. The reason for such a long gap is unclear.
Reporters were allowed to briefly film Gershkovitch, 32, before the trial began, as the media had been banned from the trial. Wearing an open-necked shirt and standing in a glass box, he smiled faintly and nodded to colleagues he recognized.
Prosecutor Mikail Ozdoyev later presented a summary of the charges to reporters.
“The investigation established and documented that… Gershkovich, on instructions from the CIA, in September 2023, in the Sverdlovsk region, collected secret information about the activities of a defense enterprise engaged in the production and repair of military equipment,” Ozdoyev said.
“Gershkovitch committed illegal actions following severe conspiratorial measures,” he said.
Ozdoyev later told reporters that he had misspoken, and that the alleged crime had in fact taken place in March 2023 – the month of the reporter’s arrest.
Closed hearing
Closed-door hearings are standard procedure in Russia for cases of alleged treason or espionage involving classified government material, which can typically last several months.
The Kremlin says the case and the arrangements made for it are a matter for the court, but it has said – without publishing any evidence – that Gershkovitch was caught “red-handed”.
Against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, Gershkovitch and other Americans detained in Russia are caught in the most serious crisis between Moscow and Washington in more than 60 years.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is open to the idea of a prisoner swap involving Gershkovitch and that there have been contacts with the United States about this, but it must remain secret.
The US has accused Russia of “hostage diplomacy”. It has described Gershkovitch and another jailed US citizen, Paul Whelan, as “wrongfully detained” and said it was committed to bringing them back.
The US embassy statement said Russian authorities had failed to provide evidence supporting the allegations against Gershkovitch, or even to explain why her work as a journalist was a crime.
The trial is taking place in the city of Yekaterinburg, where FSB security service officers arrested Gershkovich while he was dining at a steakhouse on March 29, 2023. He has since spent nearly 16 months in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.
The Wall Street Journal has declined to comment on the purpose of his reporting trip to Russia’s Urals region or on prosecutors’ specific allegation that Gershkovitch was trying to gather information about Uralvagonzavod, a supplier of tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“He was there doing his job as an accredited journalist,” Wall Street Journal publisher Alamar Latour told Reuters in a phone interview before the hearing.
Many Western news organisations withdrew their staff from Russia after Putin sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russia then passed laws that imposed long prison terms for “defaming” the armed forces or spreading “fake news” about them.
Gershkovitch was one of the few Western journalists, including Reuters reporters, who continued reporting from inside Russia.
Another journalist, Russian-American Alsou Kurmasheva, was arrested last year and is on trial on charges of violating Russia’s “foreign agent” law and spreading misinformation about the armed forces, though she denies these charges.
Earlier this month a French researcher, Laurent Vinatier, was arrested and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while gathering information about the Russian military.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
