US Embassy in Russia: No Evidence Behind Charges Against Gershkovich

The United States embassy in Russia said Wednesday that Moscow had failed to provide any evidence to support espionage charges against The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and the case was about the Kremlin using U.S. citizens to achieve its political objectives.

In a statement on the first day of Gershkovich's closed trial on spying charges, the embassy said that since his arrest, "Russian authorities have failed to provide any evidence supporting the charges against him, failed to justify his continued detention, and failed to explain why Evan's work as a journalist constitutes a crime."