The espionage trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich resumed in Russia on Thursday, as Moscow claimed to have “irrefutable proof” of the Wall Street Journal correspondent’s alleged spying activity and said talks with Washington on a possible prisoner exchange were taking place behind the scenes.
The court said closing agruments will take place on Friday. Mr Gershkovich (32) is the first US journalist to be charged with spying in Russia since the Soviet era and he faces a possible 20 years in jail for allegedly trying to gather secrets on a Russian tank factory for the CIA. The Wall Street Journal, US officials and international rights and media watchdogs say the case is a sham.
“The use of journalists for intelligence purposes, at least in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, is completely natural,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on the eve of the resumption of Mr Gershkovich’s closed trial in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
“We have irrefutable proof that Gershkovich did engage in spying activities,” he added, noting that the Russian and US “intelligence agencies remain in contact in order to see if someone could be exchanged for someone else.”
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Mr Lavrov also accused the US of undermining chances of an exchange by commenting on a subject “that does not like fuss, as everyone knows.”
“The Americans throw it into the public space from time to time, which does not help, of course. But such contacts do exist,” he added.
Washington accuses Moscow of using Mr Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a US citizen serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for alleged spying, as “bargaining chips” to increase its leverage at a time of parlous relations with the West.
Two dual US-Russian citizens, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and amateur ballerina Ksenia Karelina, were also arrested while visiting relatives in Russia in the last year.
“We will not rest until Paul and Evan come home, and Russia has ceased this barbaric practice of holding human pawns once and for all,” US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said this week.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that his country might deploy nuclear missiles in response to a US plan to start stationing long-range conventional rockets in Germany from 2026. Berlin says the US move is a reaction to Russia’s current deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, which is wedged between Nato and EU members Poland and Lithuania.
Moscow did not rule out deploying missiles, “including nuclear-armed ones,” as it looks for “the most effective ... a lgorithm for responding to changing challenges,” Mr Ryabkov said.
Ukraine said it shot down all 16 attack drones and two of three missiles launched by Russia in the early hours of Thursday. Russia said it destroyed 33 Ukrainian aerial drones and 10 marine drones near occupied Crimea.
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