A milestone has just been reached for Evan Gershkovich, the first Western journalist to be put behind bars in the history of modern Russia. The daily economic reporter Wall Street Journal was arrested on March 30, 2023 by the FSB, then transferred to Lefortovo prison in Moscow. The accusations against the 32-year-old reporter are vigorously contested by his family, his newspaper and Washington.
3 mins
With our correspondent in Moscow, Anissa El Jabri
Evan Gershkovich will be tried where he was arrested: in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. The date of his trial has not been set, but this time it is official: the Russian prosecutor’s office accuses American journalist of having collected secret information on a tank factory on behalf of American intelligence. His defense denounces a fabricated affair.
Uralvagonzavod is an iconic factory in Russia, one of the largest manufacturers in the military-industrial complex. In particular, it produces: T 90 tanks which are widely used on the battlefield in Ukraine, but also the new generation Armata tank, as well as freight wagons.
L’accusation against the correspondent economic daily life Wall Street Journal in prison has not been publicly substantiated. The entire procedure is classified secret anyway, but it is of unprecedented gravity against a foreign correspondent since the end of the Soviet Union. Evan Gershkovich faces 20 years in prison.
Washington and Moscow have indicated that they are in contact to reach an exchange of prisoners which would allow his release but so far no agreement seems in sight. Russia, for its part, wishes to obtain the return to its soil of Vadim Krassikov, imprisoned for life in Germany For the assassination of a former Chechen war commander in Berlin in 2019.
In March, the American ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy indicated that Evan Gershkovich “ demonstrated remarkable resilience and strength in the face of this grim situation », calling on Moscow to release him without delay.
THE Wall Street Journal denounced Thursday a “ simulacrum “of justice” scandalous » : « The step that Russia has just taken to organize a mock trial is not surprising but very disappointing ” And ” scandalous », reacted in a press release the management of the WSJ, which now said to wait “ of the American government that it redoubles its efforts to obtain the release of Evan “.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia since 2018wait for him too an exchange and rejects accusations of espionage which earned him a 16-year prison sentence.
A Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, working for the RFE/RL media funded by the US Congress, was also arrested in October 2023. She is accused of broadcasting “ fake news » about the Russian army.
Russia also has placed in detention at the beginning of June a French national, Laurent Vinatier, collaborator of a Swiss conflict resolution NGO. He was accused of failing to register as a “ foreign agent ” And to gather information about the Russian army.
Read alsoThe metamorphosis of Russian informational influence strategies