Former President Donald Trump said he would secure the release of a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for over a year on spying charges, accusations that the U.S. government has dismissed.
At the time of arrest, FSB said “it was established that Evan Gershkovich, acting at the request of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
The reporter is presently being held at Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, a former KGB jail, and is awaiting trial.
The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied the espionage charges leveled against Mr. Gershkovich, saying he was on a “reporting assignment” in the country. The U.S. government insisted the charges were baseless and said the reporter was “wrongfully detained.”
“I would certainly call. I’ll call for it right now in your story if you‘d like,” President Trump said. “Here’s a difference between me and Biden: I’ll get him released. He'll be released. Putin is going to release him.”
“I think Biden has dealt with Putin very poorly. Putin should never have gone into Ukraine. And he didn’t go in for four years with me. I get along very well with Putin, but the reporter should be released and he will be released. I don’t know if he’s going to be released under Biden.”
President Trump called Mr. Gershkovich’s detainment a “terrible precedent” and said he was surprised the reporter was not yet released. President Biden has called for the journalist’s release multiple times but Moscow has rejected his proposals.
He moved to Russia in 2017 to work at The Moscow Times. Mr. Gershkovich joined The Wall Street Journal in January 2022 and returned to Russia to cover the country’s invasion of Ukraine when he was arrested.
American ‘Pawns’
In March, a Moscow court extended Mr. Gershkovich’s stay in jail for an additional three months until June 30. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, was present at the court hearing. Speaking to reporters, she reiterated that accusations leveled against the journalist were “categorically untrue.”“They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” she said. “No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process, or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”
He hinted that Washington may have to secure the release of Vadim Krasikov, a 56-year-old FSB colonel, in exchange. Mr. Krasikov is presently serving a life sentence in a German prison for the murder of a Chechen war veteran.
“That proposal was rejected by Russia. [We] shouldn’t have to make these proposals; they never should have been arrested in the first place. They should both be released immediately,” a State Department spokesperson told reporters.
Russia has engaged in prison swaps before, arresting Americans in order to secure the release of Russian criminals.
Ms. Griner explained that cannabis was prescribed to manage chronic pain, but was sentenced to nine years in prison.
In exchange for Ms. Griner, the United States arranged for the release of convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death.” He was convicted back in 2011 and was serving a 25-year prison sentence.
At the time of his conviction, Preet Bharara, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Mr. Bout was ready to sell an arsenal of weapons “to terrorists for the purpose of killing Americans.”