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Russia says apprehended United States press reporter Gershkovich will stand trial over 'CIA work'

Russian district attorneys stated on Thursday they had actually sent the case of detained U.S. press reporter Evan Gershkovich to court after concluding he had been collecting info for the U.S. Central Intelligence Firm about a. Russian tank factory.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained on March 29, 2023, in the. Urals city of Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry. up to 20 years in jail after the FSB, the main successor. agency to the KGB, said it had actually caught him red-handed trying to. acquire military tricks.

He denies any wrongdoing and his company, the Wall Street. Journal, said in a statement on Thursday after the current. Russian relocation that he was dealing with an incorrect and baseless charge. based on what it called calculated and transparent lies.. President Joe Biden has called his detention absolutely prohibited.

The Journal spoke out after the workplace of Russia's General. Prosecutor said in a declaration it had approved Gershkovich's. criminal indictment which his case would be heard by a court. in Yekaterinburg.

It did not say when the case would be heard or whether the. trial would be closed to the general public as prevails in such cases.

The investigation has established and confirmed with. documentary proof that Gershkovich, an American reporter. for The Wall Street Journal, on the guidelines of the CIA,. collected secret info in the Sverdlovsk region in March. 2023 about the activities of the defence plant NPK. Uralvagonzavod JSC on the production and repair work of military. devices, the district attorneys' statement said.

Gershkovich carried out the illegal actions using. painstaking conspiratorial techniques, it included.

Prosecutors did not launch any documentary evidence to back. the charge.

PRE-TRIAL DETENTION

A joint statement from Almar Latour, his paper's. publisher, and its editorial director, Emma Tucker, required. Gershkovich's instant release.

Russia's latest move toward a sham trial is, while. expected, deeply frustrating and still no less outrageous,. the declaration said.

Evan has actually spent 441 days wrongfully apprehended in a Russian. prison for just doing his task. Evan is a reporter. The. Russian routine's smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and. based on calculated and transparent lies.

Latour and Tucker said they now expected the U.S. government. to enhance efforts to protect his release.

The first U.S. journalist detained on spying charges in. Russia considering that the Cold War, Gershkovich is presently being held. in pre-trial detention in Moscow and had actually been the subject of. detainee exchange talks in between Moscow and Washington.

The Uralvagonzavod factory, about which he is implicated of. gathering secret data, has been approved by the West. Based in. the city of Nizhny Tagil in the Sverdlovsk region, it plays a. important function in providing tanks for Moscow's war in Ukraine,. according to the Russian defence ministry.

The factory, which is run by a state conglomerate controlled. by one of President Vladimir Putin's allies, has publicly spoken. of producing T-90M fight tanks and modernising T-72B3M tanks.

The number of tanks which Russia has actually lost in battle in. Ukraine is a military secret in Russia, which states it has ramped. up tank production.

The London-based International Institute for Strategic. Research studies said in February that Russia had lost more than 3,000. tanks - the equivalent of its whole pre-war active stock -. however had sufficient lower-quality armoured vehicles in storage for. years of replacements.

(source: Reuters)