“Evan Gershkovich, the journalist from Wall Street Journal detained by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the election, but certainly before I take office.” This is what Donald Trump wrote Thursday evening on Truth Social. “He will be home, safe and with his family. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do this for me, but for no one else, and we will pay nothing!” he adds. Trump has expressed admiration for Putin in the past. He also boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine in one day.
Reporter for the “Wall Street Journal”, Evan Gershkovich was arrested by the Russian security services (FSB) during a report in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, in March 2023. He is accused of espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison and of unprecedented severity since the end of the USSR concerning a foreign journalist. He rejects these accusations, as do the United States, his newspaper, his loved ones and his family. Russia has never substantiated its accusations or publicly provided evidence, and the entire procedure has been classified secret.
Asked about Donald Trump’s comments, the Kremlin spokesperson affirmed that there were “no contacts with Donald Trump.” “Regarding (US-Russian) contacts on the issue of incarcerated and convicted persons, we can say that these contacts must be conducted in the greatest secrecy. This is the only way to be effective,” added Dmitri Peskov. The United States and Russia have already carried out prisoner exchanges in the past, following secret negotiations.
The Biden administration said in late 2023 that it had made a “significant proposal” to Russia to release Evan Gershkovich, likely as part of a prisoner exchange, but that Moscow had rejected it. In recent years, several American citizens have been arrested and sentenced to heavy sentences in Russia. Washington, which has supported kyiv against the Russian army for two years, accuses Moscow of wanting to exchange them for Russians detained in the United States.
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