RUSSIA – A Russian prosecutor is seeking an 18-year sentence for American journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been charged with espionage. The 32-year-old correspondent for The Wall Street Journal newspaper is the first Western journalist in Russia to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia.

Gershkovich is accused by prosecutors of gathering secret information about Uralvagonzavod, a plant manufacturing tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine, on the orders of the CIA. The reporter, his employer and the United States government deny the allegations, saying he was just doing his job, with accreditation from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Kremlin has provided no public evidence for the spying allegations against him, saying only that he was caught “red-handed” spying on a tank factory. He was detained in March 2023 on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and then spent almost 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison.

The latest closed-door hearing started at about 10:45am (05:45 GMT) at Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, with the prosecution and defence teams making their final arguments. Gershkovich’s trial has moved rapidly since the first hearing in late June, with the prosecution and defence teams giving their final arguments on Friday Tensions are running high between the US, Gershkovich’s birth country, and Russia, the country of origin of his parents, over Moscow’s role in the military invasion in Ukraine. For Washington, his arrest was primarily a “bargaining chip” for Russia to secure the release of its nationals convicted abroad. Russia usually concludes legal proceedings against foreigners before making any deals on exchanging them for Russians held abroad.

The US and Russia have both said they are open to exchanging the reporter in a deal, but neither has given clues on when that might happen. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that talks between US and Russian special services over possible prisoner exchanges were ongoing, without naming any specific individuals. Russian President Vladimir Putin has implied he wants to see the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted in Germany of killing a Chechen separatist commander. German judges said it was an assassination orchestrated by Russian authorities. Among other US nationals detained in Russia are reporter Alsu Kurmasheva and ballerina Ksenia Karelina, who are both dual US-Russian citizens, and former US marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence for spying.  (Al Jazeera)…[+]