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Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich goes on trial in Russia on espionage charges
Yekaterinburg, Russia — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after his arrest in the Ural Mountains city on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
The 32-year-old journalist appeared in the court in a glass defendants’ cage, his head shaved and wearing a black-and-blue plaid shirt. A yellow padlock was attached to the cage.
Evgenia Novozhenina / REUTERS
Journalists were allowed into the courtroom for a few minutes before the proceedings were closed.
When trials are held under such conditions in Russia, media, family members, friends and U.S. Embassy staffers are kept out, the Reuters news agency points out, adding that closed door venues are common at spying or treason trials in Russia.
The American-born son of immigrants from the USSR, Gershkovich is the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia. Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich when he was on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg. They claimed he was gathering secret information for the U.S. intelligence.
The State Department has declared him “wrongfully detained,” thereby committing the government to assertively seek his release.
Jay Conti, executive vice president and general counsel for Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, in an interview with The Associated Press this week, described the trial as a sham.
“He was an accredited journalist doing journalism, and this is a sham trial, bogus charges that are completely trumped up,” Conti said.
The Journal has worked diligently to keep the case in the public eye and it has become an issue in the combative months leading up to the U.S. presidential election.
Journal publisher Almar Latour and chief editor Emma Tucker said in a statement after his trial date was announced that Gershkovich “is facing a false and baseless charge. … The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies. Journalism is not a crime.”
“We had hoped to avoid this moment and now expect the U.S. government to redouble efforts to get Evan released,” they said.
After his arrest on March 29, 2023, Gershkovich was held in Moscow’s notoriously dismal Lefortovo Prison. He has appeared healthy during court hearings in which his appeals for release have been rejected.
“Evan has displayed remarkable resilience and strength in the face of this grim situation,” U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy said on the first anniversary of his arrest.
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if the court finds him guilty, which is almost certain. Russian courts convict more than 99% of the defendants who come before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they regard as too lenient and can appeal acquittals.
In addition, Russia’s interpretation of what constitutes espionage is broad. Igor Sutyagin, an arms control expert at a Russian Academy of Sciences think tank, was behind bars for espionage for 11 years for passing along material that he said was publicly available.
The U.S. has accused Russia of conducting “hostage diplomacy,” Reuters notes.
Paul Whelan, an American corporate security executive, was arrested in Moscow for espionage in 2018 and is serving a 16-year sentence.
The Wall Street Journal; Sofia Sandurskaya / AP
Gershkovich’s arrest came about a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed through laws that chilled journalists, criminalizing criticism of what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine and statements seen as discrediting the military. Foreign journalists largely left the country after the laws’ passage; many trickled back in subsequent months, but there were concerns about whether Russian authorities would act against them.
After he was detained, fears rose that Russia was targeting Americans as animosity between Moscow and Washington grew. Last year, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter with dual American-Russian citizenship for the U.S. government-funded Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, was arrested for alleged violation of the law requiring so-called “foreign agents” to register.
Another dual national, Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, is on trial, also in Yekaterinburg, on treason charges for allegedly raising money for a Ukrainian organization that supplied arms and ammunition to Kyiv. Several Western reporters have been forced to leave after Gershkovich’s arrest because Russia refused to renew their visas.
With Gershkovich’s trial being closed, few details of his case may become public. But the Russian Prosecutor General’s office said this month that he is accused of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant about 90 miles north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
Not only is Uralvagonzavod strategically sensitive, it’s also been a nest of vehement pro-Putin sentiment where an inquisitive American could offend and alarm. In 2011, a plant manager, Igor Kholmanskikh, attracted national attention on Putin’s annual call-in program by denouncing mass protests in Moscow at the time. Putin later appointed him as his regional envoy and as a member of the National Security Council.
Russia has not ruled out a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich but says that’s not possible before a verdict in his case. That could be months away, because Russian trials often adjourn for weeks. The post-verdict prospects are mixed.
Although Russia-U.S. relations are highly troubled because of the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin and Washington did work out a swap in 2022 that freed WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was serving a 9 1/2-year sentence for cannabis possession.
But that exchange also freed the highest-value Russian prisoner in the United States, arms dealer Viktor Bout, and the U.S. may not hold another card that strong. Putin has alluded to interest in freeing Vadim Krasikov, a Russian imprisoned in Germany for assassinating a Chechen rebel leader in Berlin, but Germany’s willingness to aid in a Russia-U.S. dispute is uncertain.
The Biden administration would also be sensitive to appearing to be giving away too much after coming under substantial criticism in trading Bout, widely called “the Merchant of Death,” for a sports figure.
But President Biden may feel an incentive to secure Gershkovich’s release because of boasts by former President Donald Trump, his main challenger in this year’s election, that he could easily get the journalist freed. Putin “will do that for me, but not for anyone else,” Trump claimed in May.
The Kremlin, however, says it hasn’t been in touch with Trump, and Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Pekov bristled at the attention given to a possible exchange, saying “these contacts must be carried out in total secrecy.”
CBS News
Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
Longtime ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale said on social media he has been diagnosed with cancer for a fourth time.
Vitale announced Friday that a biopsy of a lymph node in his neck showed cancer. He is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday.
“With all the (prayers) I have received & the loving support of my family, friends and ESPN colleagues, I will win this battle,” Vitale said on social media.
Chris Polk/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
The 85-year-old Vitale has previously been treated for melanoma and lymphoma. He also had six weeks of radiation treatments last year when tests revealed he had vocal cord cancer.
Vitale has been with ESPN since 1979, the year the network launched. The former coach called ESPN’s first college basketball broadcast. He’s also a longtime fundraiser for cancer research.
Vitale helped friend Jim Valvano to the stage at the 1993 ESPYs, where Valvano delivered his famous “Don’t give up” speech. Valvano died of adenocarcinoma less than two months later.
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