Russia Seeks 6-Year Jail Term for Evan Gershkovich’s Interviewee

Russian prosecutors are seeking a six-year prison sentence for PR expert and activist Yaroslav Shirshikov, who was among the first to report on U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich’s arrest in March last year, local media reported Monday.

Shirshikov has said he gave an interview to Gershkovich and helped him with his reporting not long before the Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg for espionage. 

Authorities arrested Shirshikov weeks later on charges of “justifying terrorism” over comments about the assassination of pro-war blogger Valery Tatarsky.

According to the online news outlet It’s My City, state prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Shirshikov to six years in a medium-security prison.

The judge was also asked to ban Shirshikov from managing public channels on the popular messaging app Telegram.

Shirshikov wrote on Telegram that he felt “not a tinge of sadness” about the death of Tatarsky — whom he described as a “scumbag” — in a bombing attack in St. Petersburg on April 2.

He is expected to be sentenced early Tuesday.

There is no official link between Shirshikov’s terrorism case and Gershkovich’s espionage case.