The 32-year-old correspondent for The Wall Street Journal newspaper is the first Western journalist in Russia to be arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia.

Gershkovich is accused by prosecutors of gathering secret information about Uralvagonzavod, a plant manufacturing tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine, on the orders of the CIA.

The reporter, his employer and the United States government deny the allegations, saying he was just doing his job, with accreditation from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Kremlin has provided no public evidence for the spying allegations against him, saying only that he was caught “red-handed” spying on a tank factory.

He was detained in March 2023 on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and then spent almost 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison.

‘Bargaining chip’

Tensions are running extremely high between the US, Gershkovich’s birth country, and Russia, the country of origin of his parents, over Moscow’s role in the military invasion in Ukraine.

For Washington, his arrest was primarily a “bargaining chip” for Russia to secure the release of its nationals convicted abroad.