Earlier this week,a Russian court convicted a father over social media posts critical of the war and sentenced him to two years in prison. His 13-year-old daughter was sent to an orphanage.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986,when Nicholas Daniloff,a Moscow correspondent forUS 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 United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI,also on spying charges.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted by officers from the Lefortovsky court to a bus in Moscow.Credit:AP
At a hearing on Thursday,a Moscow court quickly ruled that Gershkovich would be kept behind bars pending the investigation.
While previous American detainees have been freed in prisoner swaps,a top Russian official said it was too early to talk about any such deal.
In Washington,the Biden administration said it had spoken with the Journal and Gershkovich’s family. Jean-Pierre urged Americans to heed government warnings not to travel to Russia.
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The State Department was in direct touch with the Russian government and seeking access to Gershkovich,Jean-Pierre said.
“We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press,” she said.
Gershkovich,who covers Russia,Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as a correspondent in theJournal’s Moscow bureau,could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage. Prominent lawyers noted that past investigations into espionage cases took a year to 18 months,during which time he may have little contact with the outside world.
The FSB noted that Gershkovich had accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist,but ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova alleged that Gershkovich was using his credentials as cover for “activities that have nothing to do with journalism”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:“It is not about a suspicion,it is about the fact that he was caught red-handed.”
‘The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter,Evan Gershkovich.’
Statement from The Wall Street Journal
Gershkovich speaks fluent Russian and had previously worked for the French news agency Agence France-Presse andThe New York Times. He was a 2014 graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine,where he was a philosophy major who cooperated with local papers and championed a free press,according to Clayton Rose,the college’s president.
His last report from Moscow,published earlier this week,focused on the Russian economy’s slowdown amid Western sanctions imposed after Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year.
Ivan Pavlov,a prominent Russian defence attorney who has worked on many espionage and treason cases,said Gershkovich’s case is the first criminal espionage charge against a foreign journalist in post-Soviet Russia.
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“That unwritten rule not to touch accredited foreign journalists,has stopped working,” said Pavlov,a member of the First Department legal aid group.
Pavlov said the case against Gershkovich was built to give Russia “trump cards” for a future prisoner exchange and will likely be resolved “not by the means of the law,but by political,diplomatic means”.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov ruled out any quick swap.
“I wouldn’t even consider this issue now because people who were previously swapped had already served their sentences,” Ryabkov said,according to Russian news agencies.
In December,WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed after 10 months behind bars in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
AP
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