The Russian judiciary has charged US reporter Evan Gershkovich with alleged espionage more than a year after his arrest. The trial against the Wall Street Journal correspondent is to take place in Yekaterinburg on the Urals, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office announced in Moscow on Thursday. The 32-year-old reporter denied the accusation during questioning.
The spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office said that, according to the investigation, Gershkovich had collected secret information on behalf of the US secret service CIA. It concerned the production and repair of military equipment at the Uralvagonzavod factory in Nizhny Tagil in the Urals. Gershkovich had acted in accordance with all the rules of conspiracy in his illegal activities, said authority spokesman Andrei Ivanov, according to the Interfax news agency.
The US government responded with clear words. “The charges are completely unfounded,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Thursday when asked in Washington. “Journalism is not a crime. The charges against him are false and the Russian government knows they are false. He should be released immediately.”
Gershkovich was arrested on a research trip in Yekaterinburg at the end of March 2023. Many media outlets have called for his release. US President Joe Biden promised to speak up for him.
Gershkovich is seen as a bargaining chip that Moscow can use to put pressure on the US. The reporter’s arrest was also seen as a warning to foreign correspondents who are still working in Russia despite the war against Ukraine.
No date for the trial has been announced, but the trial in Yekaterinburg, two and a half hours east of Moscow, is likely to make it more difficult to observe the proceedings.