Moscow — Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich will remain imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges until at least the end of June, after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal to end his pretrial detention. The 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in late March 2023 during a reporting trip and spent more than a year in prison, with authorities regularly extending his sentence behind bars and rejecting his appeals.
Last month, his pre-trial detention was continued again – until June 30 – in a decision that he and his lawyers later challenged. A Moscow appeals court rejected it on Tuesday.
The US State Department said Gershkovich “wrongfully detained” shortly after his arrest, and he still awaits trial on espionage charges, which the White House, his family and his employer all insist are baseless, but which could still earn him a decades-long sentence. prison.
In the courtroom Tuesday, Gerhskovich looked relaxed, laughing and occasionally chatting with members of his legal team.
His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support espionage accusations.
Analysts have pointed out that Moscow could use imprisoned Americans as bargaining chips to ratchet up tensions between the United States and Russia over President Vladimir. Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine. At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years, including WNBA star Brittney Griner — were exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the United States
In December, the US State Department said it had made a significant offer to secure Gershkovich’s release and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia for espionage, which Moscow would have rejected, according to him. Whelan has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and was also declared wrongfully detained by the US government.
Authorities have not described the offer, although Russia has reportedly requested the release of Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life in Germany in 2021 for the murder in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian. citizen of Chechen origin who had fought against Russian troops in Chechnya and then sought asylum in Germany.
President Biden committed at the end of March to “continue working every day” to secure Gershkovich’s release.
“We will continue to expose and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as a bargaining chip,” Mr. Biden said in a statement that also mentioned Whelan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked this year about Gershkovich’s release, appeared to refer to Krasikov as a man imprisoned by a U.S. ally for “liquidating a bandit” who allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.
Beyond this allusion, Russian officials have remained silent on the negotiations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly said that while “some contacts” regarding the exchanges continue, “they must be conducted in absolute silence.”
Gershkovich is the first American journalist arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in an exchange for an employee of the Soviet Union’s mission to the United Nations who was arrested by the FBI, also on espionage charges.