Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is accused of spying, a cost the US dismisses as ‘fiction’.
On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s arrest of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, President Joe Biden has condemned his continued detention and says america is working each day to safe his launch.
“Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter – risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” Biden mentioned in a press release on Friday.
Biden mentioned the US condemns “Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips” and promised that he would preserve hope for The Wall Road Journal (WSJ) reporter’s freedom.
“We will continue working every day to secure his release. … And we will continue to stand strong against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists – the pillars of free society,” Biden added.
The 32-year-old journalist and the WSJ have persistently denied allegations that Gershkovich was spying for the US when he was arrested on March 29, 2023 whereas on project within the Urals metropolis of Yekaterinburg.
Russian authorities haven’t detailed what, if any, proof they must help the costs.
Biden on Friday additionally promised to safe the discharge of ex-marine Paul Whelan, who was convicted in 2020 on spying prices that he too denies and who’s serving 16 years in a penal colony.
“To Evan, to Paul Whelan, and to all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad: We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring you home,” Biden’s assertion mentioned.
‘Using Americans as pawns’
This week, Russia prolonged Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention by three months till June 30 as he awaits trial on espionage prices.
The US embassy slammed the choice and accused Russia of “using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends”.
The US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, reiterated at Tuesday’s courtroom listening to that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue”, calling them “fiction”.
There’s “no justification for Evan’s continued detention and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime,” Tracy mentioned.
Analysts prompt Moscow may very well be utilizing jailed US residents as bargaining chips as US-Russian tensions soar over the Kremlin’s conflict in Ukraine. Gershkovich’s arrest has additionally been criticised for its impact on different journalists working in Russia.
A minimum of two US residents arrested in Russia in recent times – together with WNBA star Brittney Griner – have been exchanged for Russians jailed within the US. The US tried to incorporate 52-year-old Whelan in a prisoner change in 2022, however these plans fell by means of.
Gershkovich is the primary US reporter to be arrested on espionage prices in Russia since September 1986 when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US Information and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.
Daniloff was launched with out cost 20 days later in a swap for an worker of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI, additionally on spying prices.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has mentioned Gershkovich may very well be launched sooner or later in change for a Russian prisoner held overseas, however no such deal has up to now materialised.