MOSCOW, June 13 — US reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia in March 2023 on espionage charges he and his employers have rejected as false, is to face trial, prosecutors today.

His trial will take place in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, they said.

Russia’s Prosecutor General accused Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, of working for the CIA and collecting "secret information” about tank maker Uralvagonzavod in the Sverdlovsk region where he was arrested.

Gershkovich, his employer and the White House deny the espionage charges as false. He has been held in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison since he was detained.

The prosecutors said his case had been sent to "Sverdlovsk Regional Court for consideration”.

Moscow had previously not provided any public details of its case against Gershkovich, saying only that he was "caught red-handed”.

He is the first Western journalist since the Soviet era to be arrested by Moscow on spying charges.

Russia has said there are discussions behind the scenes on a possible prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich.

President Vladimir Putin has publicly implied that Moscow, as part of a deal to free Gershkovich, would like to see the release of a man Germany says was working for the Russian state when he killed a Chechen rebel commander in Berlin.

Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of arresting US citizens in a bid to use them as pawns to secure the release of Russians jailed abroad for serious crimes. — AFP