Jailed US journalist Evan Gershkovich yesterday appeared in a Moscow court to appeal his detention on spying charges, part of a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on dissent amid the war in Ukraine. He and the US government strenuously deny the allegations.
Dozens of journalists crowded together to catch a glimpse of the Wall Street Journal reporter, who is the first US correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying allegations.
Gershkovich looked calm as he stood inside a glass cage. US Ambassador Lynne Tracy was in the room.
Photo: AP
Russia’s Federal Security Service detained the 31-year-old in Yekaterinburg last month and accused him of trying to obtain classified information about a Russian arms factory.
Gershkovich, his employer and the US government all deny he was involved in spying and have demanded his release.
Last week, the US government declared that he was “wrongfully detained” — a designation that means his case receives special attention from the US Department of State.
The Moscow City Court was yesterday considering a defense appeal of his detention.
Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Russian lawyers have said past investigations into espionage cases took a year to 18 months, during which time he could have little contact with the outside world.
He has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which dates from the czarist era and has been a terrifying symbol of repression since Soviet times.
The arrest comes at a moment of bitter tensions between the West and Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, and as the Kremlin intensifies a crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists and civil society groups.
The US has pressed Moscow to grant consular access to Gershkovich. On Monday, Tracy said she visited Gershkovich in prison for the first time since his detention.
She said on Twitter that “he is in good health and remains strong,” reiterating a US call for his immediate release.
US President Joe Biden spoke to Greshkovich’s parents last week and again condemned his detention.
“We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening, and we declared it so,” he said.
A top Russian diplomat last week said that Russia might be willing to discuss a potential prisoner swap with the US involving Gershkovich after his trial. That means any exchange is unlikely to happen any time soon.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
RSS