WSJ Journalist Facing 20-Years In Russian Prison

Evan Gershkovich (WSJ Photo)

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who was detained by Russian authorities on Thursday on accusations that he was an American spy, knew the dangers of working in the country.

In what reads as a now eerie prediction of his own fate, Gershkovich tweeted last July how 'Reporting on Russia is now also a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years.'

In the days since his capture, the WSJ has denied that Gershkovich was spying for the U.S.

The Daily Mail reports Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Gershkovich had been 'caught red-handed' but offered no evidence to back up their assertion.

Gershkovich pleaded 'not guilty' as a court remanded him in pre-trial detention for two months.

Wearing a yellow hooded jacket (right), the journalist was seen being taken from the back of a blacked-out Russian police vehicle before being walked into the court on Thursday.  He was later seen piling back into the law enforcement van, keeping his head down.

The court ruled that he should be held in pre-trial custody, with his next hearing due on May 29.

It is the most serious public move against a foreign journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine. It's also the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. 

Gershkovich's arrest comes a year after the Russian government, shortly after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, imposed harsh new restrictions on journalists that threatened punishment for reports that went against the Kremlin's version of events - even forbidding the use of the word 'war' in their reports to describe the conflict.