The trial of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was jailed in Russia last year, began Wednesday, in proceedings that were closed to the public.
Russia accuses Gershkovich, a native of Princeton, of espionage, a charge the U.S. government and the Wall Street Journal vehemently deny. The paper’s top editors have said Gershkovich was “doing his job in a country where independent journalism has been turned into a crime.”
In an interview with NJ Spotlight News, Anton Troianovski, Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times and a friend of Gershkovich, discusses the trial and what could come next.
“Based on those letters that I’ve also been able to exchange with him, I can say that his spirits remain high. He’s just incredibly strong and I know can get through this,” said Troianovski.
“It’s been clear from the very beginning that Evan was taken essentially as a hostage because he’s an American citizen and Russia believes they can make deals with the United States for these prisoner exchanges. So that is really Vladimir Putin’s angle, but it’s obviously also very complicated, and we just don’t know how close that may be to coming to fruition.”
