A Russian court extends pretrial detention for an American reporter accused of spying
MOSCOW — A court in the Russian capital decided Tuesday to keep Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in custody pending trial on espionage charges that he denies.
The Moscow court rejected an appeal against Gershkovich’s detention filed by his lawyers, upholding an earlier ruling to keep him behind bars until the end of March.
The court’s order means that 32-year-old Gershkovich will spend at least a year behind bars in Russia after his arrest in March 2023 during a reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
Gershkovich and the Journal have denied the espionage allegations, and the U.S. government has said he was wrongfully detained. Russian authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage allegations.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be accused of espionage in Russia since 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Gershkovich is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is willing to negotiate a deal to exchange Gershkovich and hinted that Moscow wants the release of a Russian imprisoned in Germany sit.
Putin accused Gershkovich of being “caught red-handed when he secretly received classified information,” while adding that “certain conditions are being discussed between special services. I believe an agreement can be reached.”
He pointed to a man imprisoned in a “US-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya. Putin did not mention any names but appeared to refer to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany after being convicted of the 2019 murder in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.
German judges said Krasikov acted on orders from Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity and passport and means to carry out the murder.
German officials have declined comment on whether Russia made any attempt to secure a swap of Krasikov and Gershkovich and whether Berlin was in contact with the US.
In December, the U.S. State Department said that Russia had rejected several proposals for Gershkovich’s release and that Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security official, has been jailed in Russia since his arrest in December 2018 on espionage-related charges that both he and the American government have expressed. dispute. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Earlier this month, a Moscow court took a German citizen into custody on drug trafficking charges after he was arrested for possession of cannabis gummies. Patrick Schobel, 38, who was detained at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport last month, told authorities he took the gummies to help him sleep during long flights.
Some analysts have noted that Moscow could use captured Americans as a bargaining chip after U.S.-Russian tensions soared when Russia sent troops to Ukraine. At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, have been exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the US.