text:  He's being punished because he's a journalist and he's an American. Simple as that. The Wall Street Journal's Conte said a guilty verdict for Gershkovich was always expected. The conviction rate in Russia for these kinds of cases is over 99%. But it was the speed of the trial that has caught people's attention and led to speculation that Russia may be open to doing a swap. Conte again. There's a number of years of history of Russia taking individuals.