Russian prosecutors request 18-year sentence for US journalist Evan Gershkovich

Prosecutors have requested a sentence of 18 years for Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, whose trial for espionage is coming to an end, Russian state-affiliated news agency Interfax reported on Friday.

Gershkovich, the first US journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War, was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia’s Ural region in March 2023 while researching a story on the Wagner mercenary group. He has already spent nearly 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.

The court’s verdict is expected to be announced at 5pm local time (UTC+5) on Friday, independent news outlet Mediazona reported, after just three court hearings that have been held behind closed doors.

The first hearing in his case was held on 26 June, followed by two more hearings on Thursday and Friday. No witnesses were questioned during the first hearing, and only one witness — Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from the Sverdlovsk region who was interviewed by Gershkovich — was seen leaving the courtroom on Thursday, Mediazona wrote.

Gershkovich, who previously worked for The New York Times, AFP and The Moscow Times, has lived in Moscow since 2017 and was accredited as a journalist by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Vladimir Putin indicated in February that he was open to a prisoner swap that included Gershkovich, suggesting that he might be exchanged for Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, who is currently serving a life sentence in Germany for a politically-motivated killing in a Berlin park in 2019.

Associates of slain opposition leader Alexey Navalny have said that the Kremlin had been in talks to exchange Navalny and “two unnamed US citizens” for Krasikov in February, but that the negotiations had been suspended following Navalny’s death in prison.

Russian officials continue to bring up the possibility of exchanging Gershkovich, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying on Wednesday that Russian and US security services were in contact “to see who can be exchanged for whom”.