Russia convicts US journalist of spying in a trial widely seen as politically motivated

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted Friday of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on charges that his employer and the U.S. government have rejected as fabricated.

The swift conclusion of the secretive trial in Russia’s highly politicized legal system could potentially clear the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.

Gershkovich, his head shaved and looking thin in a dark T-shirt, was calm as he stood in a glass defendants’ cage in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court. He listened impassively to the verdict but gave an occasional smile. When Judge Andrei Mineyev asked him if he had any questions about the verdict, he replied “No, your honor.”

After Mineyev read the verdict, someone in the courtroom shouted, “Evan, we love you!”

Closing arguments took place behind closed doors where Gershkovich did not admit any guilt, according to the court’s press service. Prosecutors requested an 18-year sentence, but the judge opted for a shorter term.

U.S. President Joe Biden said after the conviction that Gershkovich “was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American.”

“We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so,” he said in a statement. “As I have long said and as the U.N. also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime.”

Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Editor in Chief Emma Tucker called it a “disgraceful, sham conviction.”

"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 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.”

Latour later told The Associated Press in an interview it was “deeply disconcerting” to see Gershkovich in a defendants’ cage with a shaved head “and the more emaciated look,” but he added: “We do believe that he’s otherwise healthy.”

Commenting on the unusually swift trial, he said, “It just goes to show that in an autocracy and a regime like this, trials can move at any speed, with an invisible hand deciding that.” It further underscores “the fake nature of these charges,” he added.

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.

He has been behind bars since his arrest, time that will be counted as part of his sentence. Most of that was in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison — a czarist-era lockup used during Josef Stalin’s purges, when executions were carried out in its basement. He was transferred to Yekaterinburg for the trial.

Gershkovich was the first U.S. journalist arrested on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War. Foreign journalists in Russia were shocked by Gershkovich’s arrest, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.

Unlike the trial's opening June 26 in Yekaterinburg and previous hearings in Moscow where reporters could see Gershkovich briefly before proceedings began, there was no access to the courtroom Thursday when the trial resumed. Media were allowed in Friday for the verdict. Espionage and treason cases are typically shrouded in secrecy.

Russian courts convict more than 99% of defendants, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient.

The U.S. State Department has declared Gershkovich “wrongfully detained,” committing it to assertively seek his release.

Asked Friday about a possible prisoner swap involving Gershkovich, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow and Washington’s “special services” are discussing an exchange. Russia has previously signaled a possible swap, but said a verdict must come first. Even after a verdict, a deal could take months or years.

U.S. officials offered to swap Gershkovich last year but it was rejected by Russia, and they have not made public any possible deals since then.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday declined to discuss negotiations about an exchange.

President Vladimir Putin hinted earlier this year he would be open to swapping Gershkovich for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, prosecutor Mikael Ozdoyev said Gershkovich was accused of gathering secret information about production and repair of military equipment at Uralvagonzavod, an industrial plant about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg that manufactures tanks. Ozdoyev repeated the claim that Gershkovich was acting on instructions from the CIA.

U.S. officials have dismissed this as bogus. “Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said last month.

Russia’s interpretation of what constitutes high crimes like espionage and treason is broad, with authorities often going after people who share publicly available information with foreigners and accusing them of divulging state secrets.

U.N. human rights experts said this month that Russia violated international law by jailing Gershkovich and should release him immediately.

Arrests of Americans are increasingly common in Russia, with nine U.S. citizens known to be detained there as tensions between the two countries have escalated over fighting in Ukraine.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Moscow of treating “human beings as bargaining chips.” She singled out Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan, 53, a corporate security director from Michigan, who is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted on spying charges that he and the U.S. denied.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that when it comes to Gershkovich, Whelan and other Americans wrongfully detained in Russia and elsewhere, we’re working “quite literally every day.”

“We’re working it as we speak, and we’re not going to stop until we get Evan home, Paul home, till we get others home,” Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russian authorities have detained several U.S. nationals and other Westerners.

In his statement, Biden said that “since the very first day of my administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad.”

The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich was fluent in Russian and moved to the country in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022.

Gershkovich had over a dozen closed hearings on extending his pretrial detention or appeals for his release. He was brought to the courthouse in handcuffs and appeared smiling for the many cameras before the hearings began.

These gave his family, friends and U.S. officials a glimpse of him, and it was a break from his otherwise monotonous prison routine. But his mother, Ella Milman, said they also were a painful reminder that “he is not with us.”

Friends say that while he was in Lefortovo, Gershkovich was not allowed phone calls and was allowed out of his cell for only an hour a day to exercise. He usually spent the rest of his time reading books in English and Russian and writing letters to friends and family.

He relied on his sense of humor to get through the days, according to those close to him.

As he marked his second year in captivity in March, Milman said he was “telling people not to freak out,” but she admitted the strain for friends and family was “taking a toll.”

Judge Andrei Mineyev reads the verdict as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

The state prosecutor Mikael Ozdoev speaks to journalists after the court session inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, second left, stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

FILE - This combination of photos shows Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at the Moscow City Court in Moscow and the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, from top left to right, on April 18, 2023, Sept. 19, 2023, Oct. 10, 2023, and from bottom left to right, on Dec. 14, 2023, April 23, 2024, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands listening to the verdict in a glass cage of a courtroom inside the building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024. A Russian court convicted Gershkovich on espionage charges that his employer and the U.S. have rejected as fabricated. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Evan Gershkovich's lawyer Maria Korchagina walks inside the court building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024, during the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's suspected spying activities. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Evan Gershkovich's lawyer Maria Korchagina, foreground, walks inside the court building of "Palace of justice," in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024, during the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's suspected spying activities. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

FILE - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Court officials say closing arguments in the espionage trial of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich will be held Friday, July 19, 2024, as the proceedings picked up speed in a case that has seen the reporter held in pre-trial custody for over a year. (AP Photo, File)

The Lady Justice statue is seen through a traffic light atop of the court building with the words reading, "Palace of justice," on the front in Yekaterinburg, Russia Friday, July 19, 2024, ahead of the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's suspected spying activities. Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

People walk past the court building with the words reading, "Palace of justice," on the front in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Friday, July 19, 2024, prior to the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's suspected spying activities. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

A Russian Federal Bailiffs Service employee patrols around the court building with the words reading, "Palace of justice," on the front in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on Friday, July 19, 2024, ahead of the trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's suspected spying activities. Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

BRUSSELS (AP) — At first glance, the European Union may seem like a paragon of gender equality — what with Ursula von der Leyen heading the all-important executive branch. Still, all the talk this week is about an excess of men poised for top positions at the EU headquarters.

Not that von der Leyen, the first woman to hold the position as European Commission president, would want anything other than full gender parity in the body that runs the day-to-day business of the world's biggest trading bloc of 450 million people.

“One of its key objectives is achieving gender balance in decision-making,” the strategy of von der Leyen's outgoing European Commission boldly proclaimed. Her office was “committed to lead by example, with the first female Commission president selected in 2019, and the first gender-balanced College of Commissioners during this time.”

When it comes to gender issues, the 27-nation EU is often seen as perhaps the most progressive grouping of countries in the world, leaving other nations and continents in its wake where the dominance of men in political institutions is still the order of the day.

So it makes it especially galling for von der Leyen, who is setting up the team for her second five-year mandate, that her hands are tied and she can't independently pick her commissioners. In her first five-year term, there was near gender parity among EU commissioners.

In her offices overlooking the Brussels skyline, she sometimes holds court underneath a massive picture of the founding fathers of the current-day EU meeting in Rome in 1957 — they're men as far as the camera lens could see.

Until the late 1980s, it remained an exclusive boy's club before women shattered the institutional ceiling.

But von der Leyen is beholden to the EU's complicated rules that allow every member nation to put forward a commissioner. And while von der Leyen asked them to field a male and female candidate to make her job picking the right politician for each portfolio easier, all too many member states have flat out ignored her since they have the law, if not politics, on their side.

Often, the pick depends on strictly national politics that gives one party the right one year, and another the right the next time. If not governments, parliaments can also get involved — making life even more difficult. The quality of available people also matters. And nations can also ignore her for whatever whim or reason.

There are member states like Ireland that say they have used their full rights to put the best person forward. In Ireland's case, a man — namely their finance minister, Michael McGrath.

“We’ve put forward a very high caliber nominee, that’s to me is the most important criterion,” said Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.

Von der Leyen at first started out with 21 men on the list, which would make for a male dominated European Commission — the extent of which has not been seen in more than two decades — and she has been working to get that figure down.

The EU, on the other hand, will have women as president of the European Parliament — Roberta Metsola of Malta — and as foreign policy chief — Kaja Kallas from Estonia.

“The president has been very clear in what her ambition is, which is a gender balance college," European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said. "She is doing everything in her powers to have a gender-balanced college for the next mandate. She is, of course, in constant touch with the leaders of all member states.”

And late Monday, she got some good news from the last holdout nation, Belgium. It ditched outgoing Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who was bent on returning, and picked Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib to bring the balance to a potential 17-10.

Once von der Leyen completes the mix and match of political group, nation and post, the full list goes to the European Parliament where each prospective commissioner can still be rejected by lawmakers. There is no set date for when a vote will happen, but debate will continue for most of September.

File - Incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

File - Incoming European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference to unveil her European Commission candidates team at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

File - From left, European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli and European Commissioner for Europe fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager speak with each other during the weekly College of Commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

File - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, second right, speaks with from left, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton and European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi during a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, Friday, June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

File - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, arrives for the weekly College of Commissioners meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Sept. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)