Russian prosecutors said on Thursday they had sent the case of detained U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich to court after concluding he had been collecting information for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency about a Russian tank factory.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested on March 29, 2023, in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountain region on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.
The FSB, the main successor agency to the KGB, said it had caught him “red-handed” trying to obtain military secrets.
Gershkovich and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, have flatly denied the charges, and the newspaper has repeatedly called for his immediate release. The White House has called the charges “ridiculous,” with U.S. President Joe Biden calling the detention “totally illegal.”
The office of Russia’s general prosecutor said in a statement it had approved Gershkovich’s criminal indictment and that his case would be heard by a court in Yekaterinburg.
It did not say when the case would be heard or whether the trial would be closed to the public as is common in such cases.
“The investigation has established and confirmed with documentary evidence that Gershkovich, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal, on the instructions of the CIA, collected secret information in the Sverdlovsk region in March 2023 about the activities of the defence plant NPK Uralvagonzavod JSC on the production and repair of military equipment,” the prosecutor’s statement said.
“Gershkovich carried out the illegal actions using painstaking conspiratorial methods.”
Prosecutors did not release any documentary evidence to back up the charge.
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On March 29, 2023, Russian authorities arrested journalist Evan Gershkovich, alleging he was attempting to gather classified information about a Russian arms factory. His friend and colleague, Anton Troianovski, reflects on their friendship and hopes for a safe return, sooner rather than later.
Prisoner exchange talks fail
Gershkovich, the first U.S. journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War, is currently being held in pre-trial detention in Moscow and has been the subject of so far fruitless prisoner exchange talks between Moscow and Washington.
The Uralvagonzavod factory, which is subject to Western sanctions, is based in the city of Nizhny Tagil in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region and, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, plays a crucial role in supplying tanks for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
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The factory, which is controlled by a state conglomerate controlled by one of President Vladimir Putin’s allies, has acknowledged that it produces T-90M battle tanks and modernizes T-72B3M tanks.
The number of tanks that Russia has lost in battle in Ukraine is a military secret in Russia, but the country has said it has ramped up tank production.
The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said in February that Russia had lost more than 3,000 tanks — the equivalent of its entire pre-war active inventory — but had enough lower-quality armored vehicles in storage to supply years’ worth of replacements.
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