Russian authorities announced they will try American journalist Evan Gershkovich on charges of espionage. The trial will take place in the city of Yekaterinburg, where in 2023 Gershkovich was initially detained while on a reporting trip. Despite having been accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, Gershkovich has been held for over a year in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow.
Gershkovich, his employer – the Wall Street Journal - and the United States government have vigorously denied the charges against him. The U.S. government has designated him as “wrongfully detained.”
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “There is absolutely zero credibility” to Russia’s charges.
“We have been clear from the start that Evan had done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime. The charges against him are false, and the Russian Government knows that they are false. He should be released immediately,” he said.
Spokesperson Miller said the United States will continue to work every day to bring home Evan Geshkovich, as well as American citizen and former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for more than five years.
At the release of the State Department’s most recent human rights report, Secretary of State Antony Blinken deplored the detentions of both men:
“Governments like Russia also arbitrarily detain foreign nationals for political purposes, using human beings as bargaining chips. Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and every unjustly held individual deserves to go free. The United States and our many partners will keep working every day to reunite them with their families and to hold accountable government that engage in this deplorable practice.”
Speaking at a recent congressional hearing, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens also underscored the need for a collective response to the challenge of so-called hostage diplomacy. “The nature of this problem is global, and so, therefore, should be the solution,” Special Envoy Carstens said. “We are confident that if we get a critical mass of partners together to raise the cost of using foreign nationals as bargaining chips, we will be able to effectively deter bad actors and end arbitrary detention as a tool of diplomacy.”
