The arrest of an American reporter on spying charges in Russia appears to be a "retaliation measure" against the US, an expert says - as one of Vladimir Putin's minister's worryingly rules out the notion of a quick prisoner swap.
Russia's security service arrested The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg on Thursday, accusing him of trying to obtain classified information, in the first such incident since the Cold War.
The case against Mr Gershkovich could be used by Russia as a "trump card" for a future prisoner exchange, a Russian lawyer suggested, although deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov denied that possibility.
Although more information since the announcement of his detention hasn't been released, Mr Gershkovich is likely to be held in total isolation, without phone calls, visitors or even access to newspapers, according to another Russian lawyer who has worked on espionage cases.
Mr Gershkovich's is the first criminal case on espionage charges against a foreign journalist in post-Soviet Russia.
"That unwritten rule not to touch accredited foreign journalists, has stopped working," said defence attorney Ivan Pavlov, a member of the First Department legal aid group and prominent Russian defense attorney who has worked on many espionage and treason cases.
Mr Pavlov said the case against Mr Gershkovich was built in order for Russia to have "trump cards" for a future prisoner exchange and will likely be resolved "not by the means of the law, but by political, diplomatic means."
While previous American detainees have been freed in prisoner swaps, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov ruled out any quick swap.
"I wouldn't even consider this issue now because people who were previously swapped had already served their sentences," Mr Ryabkov said, according to Russian news agencies.
In December, WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed after 10 months behind bars in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Another American, Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.
Jeanne Cavelier, of press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, said Mr Gershkovich's arrest "looks like a retaliation measure of Russia against the United States."
"We are very alarmed because it is probably a way to intimidate all Western journalists that are trying to investigate aspects of the war on the ground in Russia," said Ms Cavelier, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk at the Paris-based organisation.
Russian journalist Dmitry Kolezev said on Telegram that he spoke to Mr Gershkovich before his trip to the Ural Mountain city of Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest, about 1,670 kilometres (about 1,035 miles) east of Moscow.
"He was preparing for the usual, albeit rather dangerous in current conditions, journalist work," Mr Kolezev wrote.
Another prominent lawyer with the First Department group, Yevgeny Smirnov, said that those arrested on espionage and treason charges are usually held at the FSB's Lefortovo prison, where they are usually held in total isolation, without phone calls, visitors or even access to newspapers. At most, they can receive letters, often delayed by weeks. Smirnov called these conditions "tools of suppression."
Mr Smirnov and Mr Pavlov both said that the investigation could last for 12 to 18 months, and the trial would be held behind closed doors.
The FSB, which is the top domestic security agency and main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Mr Gershkovich "was acting on instructions from the American side to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitutes a state secret."
"The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich," the newspaper said. "We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family."
The arrest comes at a moment of bitter tensions between the West and Moscow over its war in Ukraine and as the Kremlin intensifies a crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists and civil society groups.
The sweeping campaign of repression is unprecedented since the Soviet era - and activists say it often means the very profession of journalism is criminalized, as are the activities of ordinary Russians who oppose the war.
Earlier this week, a Russian court convicted a father over social media posts critical of the war and sentenced him to two years in prison while his 13-year-old daughter was sent to an orphanage.
Mr Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Mr Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union's United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.
At a hearing Thursday, a Moscow court quickly ruled to keep Mr Gershkovich behind bars pending the investigation.
There was no immediate public comment from Washington, although a U.S. official indicated the U.S. government was aware of the situation and awaiting more information from Russia.
Mr Gershkovich, who covers Russia, Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations as a correspondent in The Wall Street Journal's Moscow bureau, could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage. Prominent lawyers noted that past investigations into espionage cases in the past took a year to 18 months, during which time he may have little contact with the outside world.
The FSB noted that Mr Gershkovich had accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, but ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Gershkovich was using his credentials as cover for "activities that have nothing to do with journalism."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "It is not about a suspicion, is it about the fact that he was caught red-handed."
Mr Gershkovich speaks fluent Russian and had previously worked for the French news agency Agence France-Presse and The New York Times. He was a 2014 graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, where he was a philosophy major who cooperated with local papers and championed free press, according to Clayton Rose, the college's president.
His last report from Moscow, published earlier this week, focused on the Russian economy's slowdown amid Western sanctions imposed when Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year.
According to Mr Pavlov, there have been no acquittals in treason and espionage cases in Russia since 1999.
