Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is being held in a Russian prison on the charge of espionage. Today his latest request to appeal his detention was denied.

A Russian court upheld Evan's detention. The U.S. government has deemed him as wrongfully detained. He has been in the news recently because of remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he is open to a prisoner swap for Evan's release. 

The rejection of Gershkovich's latest appeal means he will remain behind bars until at least March 30. At that point, he will have been in custody for more than a year. The Wall Street Journal and the United States government deny that Evan is a spy. The 33-year-old reporter based at the WSJ's Moscow bureau was taken into custody while he was on a reporting trip in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. He is being held at Moscow's Lefortovo Prison.

Russian investigators have not publicly presented evidence of any espionage by Evan. Russia is known for conducting secret trials and that is especially true in espionage cases. 

Putin made his remarks on the release of Gershkovich during an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this month. Putin and other Russian officials have dangled that possibility in recent weeks but no agreements have been made. Putin has not named anyone to be released in exchange for Evan in a prisoner swap. 

Secretary of State Tony Blinken has addressed the possibility of the release of Evan and another American, Paul Whelan, recently but nothing seems to have changed. The State Department will now only say, “Evan Gershkovich never should have been detained in the first place,” and that he should be freed immediately.

Previous appeals made on behalf of Evan by his lawyers have included a request that he be transferred to house arrest, agree to constraints on his movements, and be granted bail. All of those requests have been denied. When he was detained last March his pretrial detention was to expire on May 29, 2023. Since that time, extension after extension has been put in place.

According to legal experts, it may be months before Evan's case is brought to trial. Russian law allows wide latitude to request extensions of pretrial detention. Espionage convictions carry a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. Acquittals are rare. 

“Evan Gershkovich appeared in the Moscow City Court today, where an appeal of his wrongful detention was denied once again,” the Journal said. “It’s been nearly one year since Evan’s unjust arrest for doing nothing more than his job, and every day he remains in prison is an unconscionable attack on a free press. Evan is a journalist, and any suggestion or portrayal otherwise is fiction. We continue to demand his immediate release.”

It is not likely that Evan will be released before he goes to trial. Putin is using him and other Americans being detained in Russia as leverage. Putin knows Joe Biden is a weak president and not very skilled at bringing American hostages home from overseas. Putin wants the release of Russian criminals in exchange for using prisoner swaps.

Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be charged with espionage in Russia since the end of the Cold War. Since Evan's detention, another American journalist has been detained. Alsu Kurmasheva, who holds dual U.S.-Russian citizenship was detained in October. She works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is based in Prague. She was not working during her visit to Russia, she was visiting her ill mother. She is charged with spreading false information about Russia's military.