The Russian Prosecutor General’s office announced Thursday that it has approved the indictment of American journalist Evan Gershkovich. Gershkovich will stand trial in Yekaterinburg, the city where he was arrested in March 2023. He is the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges since the Cold War.
Accusations and Charges
According to a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s office, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has “established and documented” that Gershkovich was acting on instructions from the CIA. The FSB alleges that he “collected secret information” about a Russian tank factory. The statement also claimed that Gershkovich employed “painstaking conspiratorial methods” to carry out these alleged illegal activities.
Denials and International Response
Gershkovich, the US government, and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, have vehemently denied the charges against him. The US State Department designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained less than two weeks after his arrest and has called for his immediate release.
Imprisonment and Pre-Trial Detention
Since his arrest, the 32-year-old journalist has been imprisoned in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison. His pre-trial detention period has been extended multiple times over the past year.
Gershkovich is not the only American currently detained in Russia. Ex-Marine Paul Whelan was arrested in 2018 and has also been designated as wrongfully detained. Additionally, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was detained in June 2023, Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was arrested in January, and American teacher Marc Fogel was arrested in August 2021.
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Written Doris Chinwe Omemgbeoji