RUSSIA’S espionage trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will begin on June 26 and will be held behind closed doors, a court statement said today.

Mr Gershkovich, a United States citizen, has been behind bars since his March 2023 arrest and faces 20 years in prison if convicted.

The trial is to be held in the Sverdlovsky regional court in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, where he was arrested.