Closed-door Court Proceedings for American Journalist Gershkovich
Trial for accused espionage on US journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia kicks off on June 26, as announced by the district court in Yekaterinburg, Ural Mountains. As per Tass reports, the trial will be conducted in private.
Gershkovich, a correspondent for the "Wall Street Journal," is accused of collecting information in 2023 on behalf of the CIA, the U.S. intelligence agency, regarding the manufacturing and maintenance of military tech. The alleged target of this espionage was rumored to be the Uralvagonzavod plant in Nizhny Tagil, Ural Mountains.
Both Gershkovich, his employer, and the U.S. administration have rejected these accusations outright. Authorities haven't made any evidence public during the ongoing proceedings. Gershkovich was nabbed during a fact-finding mission to the Urals in Yekaterinburg back in March 2023.
Spending his pre-trial detention in Moscow, Gershkovich is perceived as a political pawn, whom Moscow might use to exert pressure on the U.S. government. Located approximately 2.5 hours east of Moscow via airplane, Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Russian region of Sverdlovsk, plays a crucial role in the current proceedings.
