Evan Gershkovich appears in Russian court to request house arrest

As CNN reported, Evan Gershkovich, a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal, who has been imprisoned in Russia since late March on allegations of espionage, made an appearance in court on Monday, April 17th to challenge the conditions of his detention.

Gershkovich is said to be demanding that his pre-trial detention be shifted from prison to house arrest. According to CNN, at the hearing, Gershkovich was seen standing with his arms crossed inside a glass enclosure while journalists reported on the proceedings.

The United States Ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was also present in the courtroom alongside Gershkovich's legal team. The US State Department has formally denounced Russia's arrest of Gershkovich, saying he has been wrongfully detained.

Earlier in April US secretary of state Antony Blinken called upon Russia to release American journalist Evan Gershkovich following his arrest for espionage on March 30th.

Photo: Instagram@evangershkovich

Diplomatic phone calls between Moscow and Washington have been few and far between as tensions have grown due to the war in Ukraine. According to a variety of news outlets Antony Blinken spoke to Putin's right-hand man Sergei Lavrov asking for Evan Gershkovich's immediate release.

Per The Independent, Sergei Lavrov responded to Blinken's request saying that both the media and American officials should not politicise or "make a fuss" over Evan Gershkovich's detainment, according to a readout of the call released by the US Department of State.

Antony Blinken took advantage of the call with Lavrov to also request the release of other American citizens currently detained in Russia such as former US Marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia for more than five years on espionage charges.

Previoulsy, on March 30, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre strongly condemned Mr. Gershkovich's arrest in a statement on the matter.

Jean-Pierre said Russia’s “targeting of American citizens” is “unacceptable,” adding that the administration “condemns the detention of Mr Gershkovich in the strongest terms”.

Russia's FSB security service released shocking news on March 30. The FSB stated that Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, had been detained on suspicions of espionage.

"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal," Russia's main security service, the FSB, said in a statement.

Photo: screenshot, YouTube, France 24

The FSB statement continued adding that Evan Gershkovich had been "acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex."

Photo: Instagram@evangershkovich

According to the FSB, Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, located to the east of the Ural mountains.

Photo: Instagram@evangershkovich

The Russian security service insists Gershkovich was "trying to obtain secret information" regarding "the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex."

Photo: Instagram@evangershkovich

As pointed out by Reuters, FSB failed to mention where this industrial complex was or its name of it. Although a Russian reporter familiar with Gershkovich's plans told NBC News that the journalist may have been trying to gather information on the Wagner mercenary group.

At this time, the FSB has yet to provide evidence of any kind proving the 31-year-old American journalist guilty.

In an article on Gershkovich's detention, The Wall Street Journal stated: "The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family."

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Mr Gershkovich reports on Russia as part of the Journal's Moscow bureau. He is accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the country's foreign ministry."

Reuters also reported that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Gershkovich's activities in Yekaterinburg were "not related to journalism."

Photo: evangershkovich.com

Ms Zakharova also added that it is not uncommon for foreign journalists to use their job as a cover for illicit activities.

According to AP News, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, told reporters on March 29, "It is not about a suspicion, is it about the fact that he was caught red-handed."

Thus far, since the war in Ukraine began, this is the most extreme public action against a foreign journalist in Russia.

In March 2022, the Russian government created a new censorship law which made it illegal to publish any information that authorities considered false regarding the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

This strict censorship caused many foreign media operations based in Russia to end their operations and leave the country over concern for their staff.

In addition, local media operations had to closely watch how they reported on Ukraine out of fear of punishment from the government.

In their official statement on the matter, the Kremlin tried to reassure that any other journalists working for the Wall Street Journal in Russia could remain as long as they had the proper credentials and were carrying out what it called "normal journalistic activity."

According to CNN, Evan Gershkovich is the first journalist to be accused of spying by Russia in nearly 40 years.

Photo: Instagram@evangershkovich

The last American accused by The Kremlin of espionage was reporter Nick Daniloff in 1986, who had to spend several weeks in a Russian prison while he waited for his release to be negotiated by the Reagan administration.