Russian court extends detention of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich

A Moscow court has extended the detention of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges at the end of March.

During a brief hearing on Thursday, the court ordered Gershkovich should remain in jail until 30 November, the Guardian reports citing Russian news agencies. His pre-trial detention had initially been scheduled to expire next week. He is being held in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow and could face a sentence of up to 20 years if found guilty.

The case is still in the stage of investigation, with no date set for a trial. Thursday’s hearing was closed to the public.

Gershkovich, 31, is the first American journalist to be held in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war. He was detained in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg while on a reporting trip at the end of March.

Russia’s FSB security service has claimed he was collecting state secrets about the country’s military-industrial complex. Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have denied the charges.

Earlier in August, the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, made her third visit to Gershkovich and reported that he appeared to be in good health despite challenging circumstances.

It has been widely speculated that Russia arrested Gershkovich in the hope of trading him for Russian intelligence officers or other people of interest to Moscow arrested in western countries, but so far there appears to have been little progress in discussions over a possible exchange.

US officials have indicated they see a prisoner exchange with Moscow as the most likely path for them to win freedom for Gershkovich, whom they deem to be wrongfully detained.

Last month the US president, Joe Biden, said he was serious about pursuing a prisoner exchange for Gershkovich and claimed the process was “under way”. The Kremlin has also suggested it could be open to a possible prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich, but said such talks must be held away from the public eye.

The Journal earlier reported that Putin held direct oversight over the detention of Gershkovich, receiving video briefings before and after his arrest by the FSB’s counterintelligence service.

Another American, the Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government have called baseless.