Russia sentences American journalist to 16 years in prison

Prosecutors had asked for 18 years in a high-security penal colony, just two years below the maximum penalty for espionage.

Gershkovich was arrested in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in March last year on a reporting assignment for his employer, the Wall Street Journal.

The Kremlin says the reporter was caught “red-handed” spying for the CIA by collecting information about a tank factory. But with court proceedings held behind closed doors, public scrutiny of the supposed evidence has been made impossible. Gershkovich has pleaded not guilty.

The Wall Street Journal and the American government have slammed the case as politically motivated and the trial a “sham”.

They argue that Gershkovich, 32, and several other American citizens jailed in Russia are being used as leverage to force Western governments to release Russians who have been imprisoned there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly hinted that he is seeking the freeing of Vadim Krasikov, an FSB assassin currently serving a life sentence in Berlin.

Both U.S. presidential candidates have stated securing Gershkovich’s release is a priority. Joe Biden’s administration has said that it has been in talks with Moscow for more than a year to try to broker a deal.

Biden’s rival Donald Trump has used the lack of progress as ammunition, promising Gershkovich would be “released almost immediately” if he were elected.

“Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform in late May. But the Kremlin promptly denied it had had any contact with Trump on the matter, saying talks could only be successful if conducted “absolutely discreetly”, in a seeming jab at the rabble-rousing Republican.

Another name frequently mentioned in relation to a possible prisoner swap is that of the prominent Kremlin critic and Russian-British dual citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been jailed in Russia for treason.

Kara-Murza’s supporters have in recent weeks raised the alarm after the opposition politician, who suffers from severe health problems after two attempted poisonings, was supposedly transferred to a hospital, where he has been denied any visits from his lawyers.