US Journalist Gershkovich Scheduled to Appear in Russian Court for the Second Hearing of Spy Charges

Moscow: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is scheduled to appear in court in Russia on Thursday for the second hearing in his trial on espionage charges that he, his employer, and the US government vehemently deny, court records showed. The trial is taking place behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains where the 32-year-old journalist was detained while on a reporting trip. At the first hearing last month the court had adjourned until mid-August. But Gershkovich's lawyers petitioned the court to hold the second hearing earlier, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and independent news site Mediazona reported on Tuesday, citing court officials. It is now scheduled for Thursday morning.

Gershkovich's employer and US officials have denounced the trial as sham and illegitimate. “Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime. And Evan should never have been detained in the first place,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said last month. Authorities arrested Gershkovich on March 29, 2023, and claimed without offering any evidence that he was gathering secret information for the US.

The Russian Prosecutor General's office said last month month that the journalist is accused of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment. It has also been viewed as a symbol of pro-Kremlin sentiment ever since one of its managers publicly denounced the 2011-12 anti-government protests in Moscow. Gershkovich is facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Russia has signalled the possibility of a prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, but it says a verdict — which could take months — would have to come first. Even after a verdict, it still could take months or years. A conviction is almost certain. Russian courts convict more than 99 per cent of the defendants who come before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient, and they even can appeal acquittals.

The American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Gershkovich is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. The State Department has declared him “wrongfully detained”, thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.

Gershkovich's arrest came about a year after President Vladimir Putin pushed through laws that chilled journalists, criminalising criticism of what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine and statements seen as discrediting the military. Foreign journalists largely left after the laws' passage; many trickled back in subsequent months, but there were concerns about whether Russian authorities would act against them.

After he was detained, fears rose that Russia was targeting Americans as animosity between Moscow and Washington grew. Last year, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter with dual American-Russian citizenship for the US government-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, was arrested for alleged violation of the law requiring “foreign agents” to register.

Another dual national, Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, is on trial, also in Yekaterinburg, on treason charges for allegedly raising money for a Ukrainian organisation that supplied arms and ammunition to Kyiv. Several Western reporters have been forced to leave after Gershkovich's arrest because Russia refused to renew their visas.