a Russian court on Tuesday extended the Detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan gershkovich by three months the 31 year old New Jersey native was arrested on March 29th on Espionage charges during a reporting trip to Russia but the Russian government has yet to reveal what if any evidence it has behind that accusation gershwitch his employer and the U.S government have denied the charges he's the first U.S correspondent to be detained in Russia for allegations of spying since the Cold War gershwitz's parents who are Soviet emigres were allowed in the courtroom after a long wait only a handful of reporters though were given permission to enter the courthouse but no further New York Times Moscow bureau chief Anton troianovsky is based in Berlin but followed the case closely and he joins me now Anton thanks for joining me from Berlin I'd love to get your take on the proceedings yesterday were we expecting an extension here I mean you know how the court systems work there yeah we absolutely were uh you know this is a case that's been brought by the FSB Russia's domestic intelligence agency they're basically the most powerful uh security service in the country and uh these courts uh in Moscow are essentially a rubber stamp for seating especially when the FSB is involved so uh you know the way these cases typically go is you have a pre-trial period that could take many months and then every few months you have uh the court um providing an extension or approving an extension uh for our how long that person is being detained and so that's what happened yesterday uh Evan uh was uh ordered uh kept in jail for another three months yeah I mean your outlet reported that journalists were allowed inside the courthouse but not in the actual courtroom how are we to discern what's really happening when so much of this has been cloaked in secrecy I mean it you know yeah the the proceeding is absolutely cloaked in secrecy as you know Evan is charged with this uh absolute or he's being investigated uh for this absolutely uh uh ludicrous charge of um Espionage and the way these Espionage cases work in Moscow in Russia is that they are uh carried out uh completely uh behind closed doors um uh in secret and so we don't still don't have any information on what evidence if any they are trying to present uh uh for this uh idea uh that um Evan was carrying out um Espionage so in that case it's uh as you say there's very little information at the same time I think we all do understand what's going on here that Evan was essentially taken as a hostage uh by the Russian State and um so it's really important that we kind of keep talking about this and keep paying attention to this yeah I mean we've certainly been doing our part from here in New Jersey but I mean you are a friend of Evans yes I understand that his parents were there yesterday the first time that they've seen him since he was detained in March um how did he seem unfortunately we don't know you know there hasn't been um any information uh from the journal uh you know that that we heard uh on uh specifically um kind of what what we were able to glean from the proceeding yesterday because as you say uh they were um uh they were taking place behind closed doors but uh it's true his parents were there you know my colleague uh from The New York Times Roger Cohen who's actually in Moscow right now um was able to see them outside the courthouse was able to speak to them you know Evan's mom Ella Millman was wearing a free Evan pin um as Roger described in his article so it is really important um in this really awful time that at least his parents were able to be there yesterday yeah so curious what we should expect to happen from here of course the Russian government is still refusing Consular access to Evan how long could this play out and what is the Biden Administration doing well this could play out a very long time unfortunately I mean as as you know Evan faces 20 years in prison um under uh uh this Espionage accusation um the whole uh pre-trial and trial period uh could take as much as a year or even more and obviously he was arrested on on March 29th so we're just over two months uh or not sorry not even uh two months into this right now um and uh so uh you know it could be a very long process because as we've heard over and over from Russian officials if there were to be any kind of prisoner exchange that gets Evan released um it will only happen after he is convicted um and of course yeah yeah and they pretty much always end in convictions so um that's the next step the Biden Administration has clearly really engaged I think that's been very heartening for for everyone involved and everyone who who cares about what happens to Evan and um you know where we obviously really hope that that continues even as sort of we recognize that this this could very well be a long road Moscow bureau chief with the New York Times thanks so much for joining me thank you for 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