On arrest anniversary, Biden condemns Russia
Friday marked a full year since American journalist Evan Gershkovich was jailed in Russia on spying charges, allegations that have been derided as completely false by his employer, his family and the U.S. president.
Gershkovich, an officially accredited Russia correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested during a reporting trip to the southern city of Yekaterinburg on March 29, 2023, and has been held in Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison ever since, while journalists and political leaders around the world rally for his freedom.
“It is well past time for this talented reporter and innocent man to come home,” Wall Street Journal Editor-inChief Emma Tucker wrote Friday.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that any possible prisoner swap that might lead to Gershkovich’s release depended on “absolute silence.”
“As for exchange matters, we have repeatedly stressed that there are certain contacts, but they must be carried out in absolute silence,” Peskov said.
But the past 12 months have seen little public movement toward the imprisoned journalist’s freedom. Gershkovich, 32, is charged with espionage, which he denies.
As the journalist awaits trial, Russian President Vladimir Putin has left no question about any verdict that might be handed down.
“If a person gets secret information, and does that in a conspiratorial manner, then this is qualified as espionage, and that is exactly what he was doing,” Putin told media personality Tucker Carlson last month.
Lynn Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, blasted the charges. “Accusations against Evan are categorically untrue,” she said Thursday. “They are not a different interpretation of circumstances, they are fiction.”
President Joe Biden said Friday he would make Russia pay for Gershkovich’s “wholly unjust and illegal” detention. “As I have told Evan’s parents, I will never give up hope either. We will continue working every day to secure his release,” Biden said. “We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips.”