Evan Gershkovich

Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old Jewish American, was sentenced to 16 imprisonment by a Russian court over espionage charges.

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American who said the allegations against him were false, went on trial last month in the city of Yekaterinburg.

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is open to a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich and that contacts with the United States have taken place but must remain secret.

Gilman, whose lawyers told the TASS news agency at his original trial that he had come to Russia to study and obtain citizenship, had pleaded guilty to all the charges, according to RIA.

Prosecutors say Evan Gershkovich gathered secret information on the orders of the CIA about a company that manufactures tanks for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Evan Gershkovich denies charges of collecting secrets for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Trump did not refer to any contacts with Putin or say what grounds he had to believe that the Russian leader would release Gershkovich.

Gershkovich, 32, became the first US journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 29 last year.

Gershkovich, his paper, and the US government all strongly deny the charges against him, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years in jail.

Gershkovich, 31, a Wall Street Journal reporter and ​​son of Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union, has been detained since March on charges of espionage.