MOSCOW (AP) 鈥� U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been , will stand trial in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, where he was detained, authorities said Thursday.
An has been finalized and his case was filed to the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in the city about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow, according to Russia鈥檚 Prosecutor General鈥檚 office. There was no word on when the trial would begin.
Gershkovich, 32, is accused of 鈥済athering secret information鈥� on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the Sverdlovsk region that produces and repairs military equipment, the Prosecutor General鈥檚 office said in a statement, revealing for the first time the details of the accusations against him.
Gershkovich was detained while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and accused of spying for the United States. The reporter, his employer and the U.S. government denied the allegations, and .
Russia鈥檚 Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleged after arresting Gershkovich that he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to back up the accusations.
The U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller slammed the development, saying there was 鈥渁bsolutely zero credibility to those charges" and adding that the U.S. government would continue to work to bring Gershkovich home.
鈥淓van has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime," Miller said. "The charges against him are false. And the Russian government knows that they鈥檙e false. He should be released immediately.鈥�
The Biden administration has sought to negotiate his release, but Russia鈥檚 Foreign Ministry said Moscow would consider a prisoner swap only after a verdict in his trial.
鈥淩ussia鈥檚 latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous,鈥� a statement by Almar Latour, Dow Jones CEO and publisher of the Journal, and Emma Tucker, the Journal's editor in chief, said.
They added that the charges against Gershkovich were 鈥渇alse and baseless.鈥�
"The Russian regime鈥檚 smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime. Evan鈥檚 case is an assault on free press," the statement said. 鈥淲e had hoped to avoid this moment and now expect the U.S. government to redouble efforts to get Evan released.鈥�
Roger Carstens, the Biden administration鈥檚 special presidential envoy who serves as the U.S. government鈥檚 top hostage negotiator, said that though he had been hopeful about striking a deal to get Gershkovich home before this point, the latest development 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 slow or stop us down.鈥�
鈥淭he bottom line is, this was not unexpected,鈥� he said.
Uralvagonzavod, a state tank and railroad car factory in the city of Nizhny Tagil, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Yekaterinburg, became known in 2011-12 as a bedrock of support for President Vladimir Putin.
Plant foreman Igor Kholmanskih appeared on Putin鈥檚 annual phone-in program in December 2011 and denounced mass protests occurring in Moscow at the time as a threat to 鈥渟tability,鈥� proposing that he and his colleagues travel to the Russian capital to help suppress the unrest. A week later, Putin appointed Kholmanskikh to be his envoy in the region.
Putin has said he believed a deal could be reached to free Gershkovich, hinting he would be open to swapping him for a Russian national imprisoned in Germany, which appeared to be , who is serving a life sentence for the 2019 killing in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.
Asked last week by The Associated Press about Gershkovich, Putin said the U.S. is 鈥渢aking energetic steps鈥� to secure his release. He told international news agencies in St. Petersburg that any such releases 鈥渁ren鈥檛 decided via mass media鈥� but through a 鈥渄iscreet, calm and professional approach.鈥�
鈥淎nd they certainly should be decided only on the basis of reciprocity,鈥� he added in an allusion to a potential prisoner swap.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
He was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich鈥檚 arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country had enacted increasingly .
The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich was fluent in Russian and moved to the country in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022.
Since his arrest, Gershkovich has been held at Moscow鈥檚 Lefortovo Prison, a notorious czarist-era prison used during Josef Stalin鈥檚 purges, when executions were carried out in its basement.
U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, who regularly visited Gershkovich in prison and attended his court hearings, has called the charges against him 鈥渇iction鈥� and said that Russia is 鈥渦sing American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.鈥�
Since sending troops to Ukraine, and other Westerners, seemingly bolstering that idea.
The Associated Press
