The Russians ‘ decision to set the date for the spy trial of imprisoned Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich on June 26 may speed up the course of a potential swap deal.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, the prosecutor’s press office announced in a statement on Monday that the test would take place behind closed doors. When Federal Security Service agents detained him in the area in March of last year, Gershkovich, 32, and the paper denied Russia’s claims that he was spying.
The State Department has fully determined that he’s “wrongfully detained”, allowing the U. S. to communicate on his representative. Soviet deputy foreign secretary Sergei Ryabkov stated to the state-run Tass news service that possible exchanges” could only be considered after a court verdict” immediately after Gershkovich’s arrest.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, told international media on June 5 that the two countries ‘ intelligence services were in touch and that the United States was working hard to get the reporter’s release.
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