Pretrial detention for American reporter accused of spying in Russia extended through March

MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court extended the pretrial detention of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained on espionage charges, through March in a Friday ruling. A 32-year-old United States citizen, Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia in late March 2023. He and his employer deny the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be wrongfully detained. Russian authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges. Gershkovich is the first American reporter to to face espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.