US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been found guilty of espionage by a Russian court and sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony after a secretive trial decried as a “sham” by his employer, his family and the White House. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter was first arrested last March by security services while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow. Prosecutors accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), accusations that Gershkovich, the WSJ and the US vociferously deny. Speaking at the 2024 Aspen Security Forum, White House NSA Jake Sullivan said the Biden Administration was ‘laser-focused’ on Gershkovich’s release.
