Russian prosecutors announced a major step on Thursday in their case against the imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich, saying they had finalized the espionage indictment against him and that he would be tried in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested more than a year ago.
The Russian authorities have suggested that they could be open to a prisoner swap for Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, but only after a verdict is handed down.
The detention of Mr. Gershkovich, the first American journalist arrested on a spying charge since the end of the Cold War, highlighted the extent to which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has damaged relations between Moscow and Washington.
In a statement, the prosecutors said they had determined and confirmed that “under instructions from the C.I.A.” and “using secrecy methods,” Mr. Gershkovich “was collecting secret information” about a factory that produces tanks and other weapons in the Sverdlovsk region.
Mr. Gershkovich, along with his employer and the United States government, has denied the charge against him. The U.S. government has designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which effectively means that the American government considers him a political prisoner.
