(AFP/VOZ MEDIA) US journalist Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia for 15 months on espionage charges which he denies, appeared Wednesday before a court in Yekaterinburg on the first day of his trial to be held behind closed doors.

The Russian judiciary has never detailed its accusations against the Wall Street Journal journalist.

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 by the Russian security services (FSB) and became the first Western journalist since Soviet times charged with espionage in Russia.

On Wednesday, he appeared in a transparent cubicle at the Sverdlovsk regional court with a shaved head and wearing a dark plaid shirt. He smiled at some journalists and greeted them with a barely audible "hello."

Accredited press were given brief access to the courtroom before the start of the trial, which will be held behind closed doors.

"The judge has entered the courtroom. The proceedings have begun," a court spokeswoman, Irina Toshcheva, told reporters shortly after 06.20 a.m. (local time).

Gershkovich, who also worked for AFP in Moscow between 2020 and 2022, is accused of collecting confidential information on behalf of the CIA about one of the country's leading arms manufacturers, Uralvagonzavod.

This company produces T-90 tanks used in Ukraine, the new-generation Armata tank and freight cars, among others.

Gershkovich, his newspaper, and his relatives reject these allegations, as does the U.S. government, which believes that Russia has fabricated the case from nothing with the intention of later exchanging the journalist for several Russians detained in Western countries.

Denials for an exchange

According to "The Wall Street Journal," the reporter, who faces up to 20 years in prison, was arrested "simply for doing his job."

Although he was in pre-trial detention in Moscow's Lefortovo prison, he is on trial in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals region, where he was arrested.

Gershkovich's family told AFP earlier this year that he is counting on a promise from President Joe Biden to obtain the journalist's release.

A senior Russian diplomacy leader, Sergey Ryabkov, revealed last week that Russia has made a proposal to Washington for a prisoner exchange, without revealing the details. According to him, "the ball is in the US's court."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged that negotiations are underway and hinted that he may ask for the release of Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for murdering a former Chechen separatist commander in Berlin in 2019 on Moscow's orders.

Several Americans are being held in Russia, including Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested last year for violating the "agents abroad" law, and former Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence for espionage, a charge he denies.

Gershkovich, the son of Jews who emigrated from the Soviet Union, grew up in New Jersey and had been working in Russia since 2017 for various media outlets.

At some of the hearings on his pre-trial detention he appeared jovial and smiling. In a letter published in 2023 he said he has "not lost his hope."

The US ambassador in Russia, Lynne Tracy, who visited him in prison in May, assured that the journalist "maintains a positive attitude, awaiting the start of legal proceedings for a crime he did not commit."