On Tuesday March 26, a Russian court extended until June the pre-trial detention of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested a year ago on charges of “espionage” which he rejects. “The Moscow City Court considered a petition from the preliminary investigation authorities and extended the term of detention of Evan Gershkovich until June 30, 2024,” the press service of the Moscow courts reported.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, who also worked for Agence France-Presse in Moscow between 2020 and 2021, was arrested at the end of March 2023 by the FSB, the federal security service, during a report from Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. His incarceration marked a new milestone in the serious tensions between Moscow and Washington, exacerbated since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Evan Gershkovich rejects these accusations of “espionage”, punishable by twenty years in prison, as do the United States, his newspaper and his relatives. Russia has never publicly provided any evidence. The entire procedure was classified secret.
Washington accuses Moscow of having taken him hostage to exchange him, like several American citizens arrested in recent years in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was willing to exchange the journalist for Vadim Krasikov, imprisoned for life in Germany for the murder of a Chechen opponent in Berlin in 2019.
But efforts to free him may have taken a more complicated turn since the death in prison of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who, according to his entourage, was also part of a prisoner exchange project currently being negotiated.
Dual nationals recently arrested
The American ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, said Tuesday after the hearing that the extension of his detention was “particularly painful” because this week marks the first anniversary of his arrest. “The accusations against Evan are absolutely false,” she insisted, calling them “fiction.” The American journalist “showed remarkable resilience and strength in the face of this grim situation,” she added. But it’s time for the Russian government to let Evan go.”
Since the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, Russian justice has systematically extended his pre-trial detention in Lefortovo prison in Moscow every two to three months. Last week, Lynne Tracy visited him and assured he was staying “strong”.
His arrest sparked shock among Western correspondents still working in Russia under increasingly tense conditions.
Like Evan Gershkovich, a former American marine, Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia since 2018, is also awaiting an exchange and rejects the espionage accusations which earned him a sixteen-year prison sentence.
Dual nationals have also recently been arrested. A Russian-American woman was arrested by the FSB in Yekaterinburg and charged with “high treason,” a harshly punishable crime, for sending money to the Ukrainian army. Before her, a Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, working for the media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, financed by the American Congress, was arrested in Russia in October 2023. She is accused of disseminating “false information” on the Russian army, a crime also punishable by a long prison sentence.
