Yekaterinburg (Russia) (AFP) - US journalist Evan Gershkovich appeared in a Russian court for the start of his closed-door trial for espionage on Wednesday, 15 months after his shock arrest on charges he, his employer and the White House reject as false.

The Wall Street Journal correspondent became the first Western journalist to be charged with spying in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained in March 2023 on a reporting trip to the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

Gershkovich smiled and greeted journalists in Yekaterinburg’s Sverdlovsk Regional Court with a barely audible “hi”, as he stood inside the glass defendants’ cage.

He wore a dark checked shirt and jeans, his head shaven, according to an AFP reporter in the courtroom.

Russian prosecutors accused Gershkovich of working for the CIA and “collecting secret information” about the country’s main tank manufacturer in the Urals – claims Washington says are fabricated.

The Kremlin has provided no public evidence for the allegations, saying only that he was caught “red-handed”.

If convicted, Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in a penal colony.

The 32-year-old spent almost 15 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison following his arrest.

The US State Department said the accusations against him had “zero credibility”, while the Wall Street Journal said he was arrested for “simply doing his job”.

Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

Moscow said last week, days after the trial date was announced, that it was waiting for a response from Washington on ideas Russia had presented for a possible prisoner swap.

- ‘He is innocent’ -

Judge Andrei Mineyev will preside over the court proceedings held behind closed doors, as is typical for espionage cases.

Despite the charges against him, the reporter has appeared cheerful and smiled in previous hearings.

In one instance, he was caught smiling to a man in a balaclava who led him, handcuffed, through the snow.

President Vladimir Putin has hinted he wants to see Gershkovich freed as part of a prisoner swap deal with the US, seeking the release of a Russian man jailed in Germany for killing an exiled Chechen separatist commander.

US President Joe Biden, who hailed Gershkovich as courageous for his reporting in Russia, has said his administration will work “every day” to bring the reporter home.

Gershkovich’s parents, who fled repression in the Soviet Union and settled in the US in the 1970s, told AFP this year that they were counting on a “very personal promise” from Biden.

“We know that he is innocent of what he is being accused of,” his father Mikhail Gershkovich told the Wall Street Journal in a video interview in March.

Russia holds other US citizens in its jails, including marine Paul Whelan, in prison for more than five years on spying charges, and US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was detained last year while visiting family.

- ‘Best way he can’ -

Raised in New Jersey and a fluent Russian speaker, Gershkovich reported from Russia for six years and stayed there even as dozens of other Western journalists left in the wake of Moscow’s Ukraine offensive.

He moved to Moscow in 2017 to work for small English-language newspaper The Moscow Times, where he produced some of the outlet’s biggest stories on a shoe-string budget.

He then worked for AFP before becoming a Moscow correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, weeks before the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine.

In the job, he reported on how the conflict was affecting ordinary Russians, speaking to the families of dead soldiers.

His friends say he was determined to stay in Russia as long as possible.

There has been a major campaign to release Gershkovich, with many of his supporters praising his resilience while behind bars.

The Gershkovich family has also said it is staying strong.

“He knows that we are doing well and we are strong,” his mother Ella Milman told the Wall Street Journal in March.

“He put the bar up high and we need to follow his example.”

Her son “still worries about us” from prison, she said, adding that he was “exercising, meditating and reading a lot” in Moscow’s Lefortovo.

“He is managing the best way he can.”