June 26 (UPI) -- The Russian trial of U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges opened Wednesday in Yekaterinburg, 1,000 miles east of Moscow, 14 months after he was arrested while on a reporting assignment for the Wall Street Journal.
He is accused of gathering classified information for the CIA on a Russian tank manufacturer near Yekaterinburg -- allegations the WSJ and the White House strongly reject -- and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if, as expected, he is convicted.
The trial is being held behind closed doors but journalists allowed in to the Sverdlovsk Regional Courthouse before the proceeding got underway reported the 32-year-old appeared to be in good spirits.
Gershkovich who was inside a glass and metal cage where defendants are tried, dubbed "the aquarium" in Russia's court system, smiled but made no comment.
A Federal Security Service indictment alleges he was acting "under instructions from the CIA" and "using painstaking conspiratorial methods," to collect secret information" about defense contractor Uralvagonzavod in Yekaterinburg.
The trial which is expected to take several months was later adjourned through Aug. 13., according to court officials.
Only his defense lawyers are permitted in court for the trial and he has had limited consular access while in detention.
Deborah Ball, deputy world coverage chief of the WSJ which claims the Kremlin is "stockpiling Americans" as currency to exchange for Russians imprisoned in the West, condemned the trial as a sham.
"This is a bogus process. It's outrageous and outlandish. Evan will not enjoy any of the due process that we would expect in any Western court. It will be closed door. It will be secret," Ball said. "Russia's acquittal rate is less than 1%. We don't expect any chance of him being acquitted."
The Guardian's Russia reporter Pjotr Sauer who is a friend of Gershkovich, told CNN, "Evan is just an honest journalist," and emphasized that Russian authorities have not presented any evidence against him.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview aired in February that he would be open to a prisoner swap that could include releasing Gershkovich.
He said "special services are in contact with one another" and that he believed "an agreement can be reached."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week confirmed that "such interaction does exist" but that Moscow would not be commenting further due to the delicacy of the negotiations.