MOSCOW — Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least the end of June after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal seeking to end his pretrial detention.
The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was detained in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent more than a year in prison, with authorities routinely prolonging his stay behind bars and rejecting his appeals. Last month, his pretrial detention was extended once again (until June 30) in a ruling that he and his lawyers later challenged. A Moscow appeals court rejected it on Tuesday.
In the courtroom Tuesday, Gerhskovich, dressed in a white T-shirt and an open plaid shirt, appeared relaxed, at times laughing and chatting with members of his legal team.
His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg worried journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what evidence, if any, they have to support the espionage charges.
Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations and the US government has stated that he is being wrongfully detained.
Analysts have noted that Moscow may be using imprisoned Americans as bargaining chips in rising tensions between the United States and Russia over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two American citizens arrested in Russia in recent years, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, have been exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the United States.
In December, the US State Department said it had made a significant offer to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, which it said Moscow had rejected.
Officials did not describe the offer, although Russia has said it is seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life in prison in Germany in 2021 for the Berlin murder of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen. of Chechen descent who had fought against Russian troops in Chechnya and then sought asylum in Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, when asked this year about Gershkovich’s release, appeared to refer to Krasikov when pointing to a man imprisoned by a U.S. ally for “liquidating a bandit” who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.
Beyond that hint, Russian officials have remained silent about the talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly said that while “certain contacts” about exchanges continue, “they must be carried out in absolute silence.”
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be 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 a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s UN mission who was arrested by the FBI, also accused of espionage.