Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years on charges that his employer and the US have rejected as fabricated.
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The conclusion of his swift and secretive trial in the country's highly politicised legal system perhaps cleared the way for a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
When the judge in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court asked Gershkovich if he understood the verdict, he said yes.
Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the US, and has been behind bars ever since.
He was the first US journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 during the Cold War.
Gershkovich's arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.
Closing arguments took place behind closed doors at the trial, where Gershkovich did not admit any guilt, according to the court's press service.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg.
Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the US.
Gershkovich was in court for a second straight day on Friday for the closed proceedings, where officials said prosecutors requested an 18-year sentence in a high-security prison.
The media were allowed in court to see Gershkovich briefly before his trial began on June 26 and were allowed in the room on Friday for the verdict.
"Evan's wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now," the Journal said in a statement on Thursday.
"Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan's immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now."
The US State Department has declared Gershkovich "wrongfully detained", committing the government to assertively seek his release.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow and Washington's "special services" were discussing an exchange involving Gershkovich.
Russia has previously signalled that a verdict would have to come before any exchange, and even then a deal could take months or years.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel declined to discuss negotiations about a possible exchange, but said: "We have been clear from the get-go that Evan did nothing wrong and should not have been detained."
Gershkovich has spent about 15 months in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo Prison.
The Russian prosecutor-general's office accused the journalist of "gathering secret information" on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a plant north of Yekaterinburg that produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
Gershkovich's employer and US officials have dismissed the charges as bogus.
Arrests of Americans are increasingly common in Russia, with nine US citizens known to be detained there as tensions between the two countries have escalated over fighting in Ukraine.
Australian Associated Press
