Evan Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced Friday to 16 years in prison, according to Russian state media.

Gershkovich was sentenced in a closed-door trial in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in a case the U.S., press freedom groups and his employer have all called a sham trial with fabricated charges.

Earlier Friday, Gershkovich pleaded not guilty to espionage charges. Russian prosecutors originally requested an 18-year sentence for the reporter, Russian state-run media reported.

The sentencing was quickly condemned by Gershkovich’s employers, Wall Street Journal Publisher Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” they said in a joint statement. “We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”

Gershkovich’s trial in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court was moved up to this week from an initial Aug. 13 date after the request from his defense team.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 in Yekaterinburg, accused of collecting state secrets on the Russian military on behalf of the U.S. government, and he became the first American journalist to be detained in Russia since the Cold War. 

It’s not clear how the conviction and sentencing will affect ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Russia on a potential prisoner swap. The Kremlin has acknowledged ongoing dialogue, as has Washington, but the talks don’t appear to have made any progress in recent months. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated in a February interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he would be open to a prisoner swap, and there is speculation that Moscow wants the return of Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Georgian citizen who fought against Russia in Chechnya.

The U.S. is likely to make a renewed push for Gershkovich’s release after his sentencing. But Gershkovich is not the only American held in Russia, with former Marine Paul Whelan detained since 2018. And a Russian American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Alsu Kurmasheva, has been detained since last October.

Gershkovich’s secretive trial had spurred widespread condemnation in the West, but in Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed to “have irrefutable proof that Gershkovich did engage in spying activities.”

“The use of journalists for intelligence purposes, at least in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, is completely natural,” he said this week, according to Russian state-run media outlet TASS. “Such contacts do exist, and it has nothing to do with attacks on journalism.”

The U.S. Embassy in Russia said that Russian authorities “failed to present evidence of a crime or justify Evan’s continued detention.”

“Like Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned for more than five and a half years, Evan remains resilient despite the circumstances,” the embassy wrote on the social platform X this week. “The United States remains committed to freeing both Evan and Paul and returning them to their families.  People are not bargaining chips.”

Updated at 8:58 a.m. EDT