Russia's espionage case against WSJ journalist a message 'for all foreign journalists to leave'
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00:00 Moving on now to a high-profile court case. A judge in Russia has rejected an appeal and ordered
00:06 Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in custody on charges of espionage.
00:12 The American journalist was taken into custody in late March in Russia
00:16 and appeared in court this Tuesday. He's the first reporter, U.S. reporter, detained in Russia on
00:21 spying charges since the end of the Cold War, and his arrest comes amid a brutal crackdown by the
00:27 Kremlin on journalists since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Gershkovich denies the
00:32 accusations of espionage, as does Washington. And for more on this story, we're joined,
00:37 let's cross to Alexandra Filipenko. She's a political analyst and a senior researcher
00:42 fellow at the Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies and an expert on Russia. Thanks for
00:47 being with us here on France 24. First of all, I just want to get your reaction to the fact that
00:51 Gershkovich was denied bail. I suppose that doesn't come as a surprise.
00:55 Unfortunately, yes. For everyone who is following Russian politics, and especially
01:01 Russian politics in the time of war, it's not a surprise at all. And we know that lawyers asked
01:08 for house arrest and ban on certain actions, as well as bail for 50 million rubles that was
01:15 supposed to pay by Dow Jones Company that owns Wall Street Journal. So, but it's not surprising
01:23 that it was denied because we've seen a whole list of political prisoners being detained or
01:30 already imprisoned in Russia right now. Also, Gershkovich is accused of spying for the U.S.
01:36 How does the Russian government plan to prove that he's guilty of espionage? What is the essence
01:42 of this case they have against him? The case is closed. So, all the journalists and everyone is
01:51 let in inside the courthouse only for a photo op and only during the, not when Gershkovich talks or
02:02 when his lawyers speak, only when the judge speaks. So, it's a closed case and we still don't
02:08 know how will they try to prove it because it seems that he was doing, he's a journalist,
02:14 he's been doing his job. And one interesting fact today, that when journalists were coming in to the
02:21 courthouse, only foreign journalists were let in first and only after that Russian journalists
02:27 were let in. So, I think that this shows how this case is made, especially for foreign audiences,
02:34 first of all, not for Russian audience. And so, I think that for Russian audience, it doesn't even
02:40 matter how they're going to prove it because Russians are used to such political cases and
02:46 they don't even try to find some base for a political case. And we've been seeing it at a
02:53 number of imprisonments in the past weeks, months and years, of course, in Russia. So, can you tell
03:00 us more about that? You're saying this is being played out for a foreign audience. Why is that?
03:05 Well, I think we should take a look at what Margarita Simonyan suggested just today in the
03:12 morning. She's the voice of the Kremlin. She's editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled media
03:16 organization Russia Today. And people like that, they just, they don't really throw things around
03:23 like that. And today in her Telegram account, she suggested exchanging Paul Whelan, convicted state
03:32 prisoner, Vladimir Karamurza, Russian state prisoner, and Evan Gershkovich for WikiLeaks
03:39 founder Julian Assange. She just wrote it. Swap Whelan, Karamurza and Gershkovich for Assange
03:46 for less than three, they won't give him up, save one useful life at the cost of three harmful lives.
03:52 So, they think that Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Vladimir Karamurza are harmful. So, I think
03:59 that people like that, they don't throw things around. She's the voice of the Kremlin. And maybe
04:03 this is a message that Moscow cannot convey and they want US to figure it out for themselves.
04:10 Vladimir Karamurza was sentenced, just sentenced to 25 years in prison. Evan Gershkovich can get
04:15 20 years in prison and Paul Whelan also 20 years in prison. So, I think that this might be a sign.
04:23 It might be a sign, first of all, for the West and a sign that Moscow would like to get Julian
04:29 Assange instead and give up Paul Whelan, Vladimir Karamurza and Evan Gershkovich.
04:34 Well, so if there is no legal remedy, do you think there could be a prisoner exchange here?
04:37 Yeah, well, I think so. I think so. I think that there are two reasons for Evan Gershkovich's
04:45 arrest. First of all, it's a sign for all foreign journalists to leave Russia,
04:49 not to stay in Russia and only report or only work in Russia if they are working according
04:55 to what Kremlin wants to hear and what Kremlin, well, propaganda or television, Russian state
05:03 television says. And also, this is a prisoner. It's a prisoner for an exchange. This is a good
05:11 opportunity to orchestrate such an exchange. And we do not know really what people, who
05:19 Moscow wants to see, actually, because there have been reports of 13 Russian potential spies,
05:25 but they were detained and they were deported to Mexico. They were detained on a Mexico-U.S. border
05:32 and there were 13 who were deported back to Mexico. But we really don't know who who've also
05:38 been detained and who is in American prisons, who Moscow is interested in. So there can be
05:43 a quite surprising prisoner swap, to my mind. OK, we'll have to leave it there. Alexandra
05:48 Filipenko, political analyst and senior researcher fellow at the Institute for U.S.
05:53 and Canadian Studies. Thanks so much for joining us here on France 24.