Former President Donald Trump has predicted when the Kremlin will release an American journalist currently detained in Russia.
Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was initially taken into custody on March 29, 2023 and accused of espionage.
Trump said Gershkovich will be “released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office" in a post on Truth Social on May 23.
“He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” he added. "Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”
Russia has repeatedly extended Gershkovich’s pre-trial detention, as of March 23. Moscow City Court had pushed back the reporter’s detention until June 30. Russia’s Federal Security Service claims the 32-year-old was acting as an agent of the United States government and collected “top-secret data about the activity of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
On the first anniversary of Gershkovich’s incarceration, President Joe Biden said that he “will never give up hope.”
“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,” said Biden in a press release. “We will continue working every day to secure his release. We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips.”
Gershkovich is one of several Americans currently detained in Russia. Paul Whelan, a Marine Corps veteran, was arrested in 2018 and is currently serving a 16-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He told the BBC in December that he felt “abandoned” by the Biden administration.
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, was arrested in 2021 and is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence.
“There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind,” Jane Fogel, the 63-year-old’s wife, told The Washington Post in July of 2022. “It’s terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.”
The Biden administration secured the release of Brittney Griner, a WNBA player, through a prisoner swap in December of 2022 – nine months after she was detained by Russian authorities after cannabis oil was found in her luggage. In exchange for the athlete, the federal government gave the Kremlin Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who has been in American custody for 12 years while serving a 25-year sentence. Bout was known as the “Merchant of Death.”
When asked about Trump’s remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not directly comment on the diplomatic relationship between Putin and the former American president.
“Naturally, Putin has no contact with Donald Trump,” Peskov said, per HuffPost. “As for communication on the issue of persons in custody, convicts, we can state once again what we have repeatedly said, that these talks must be carried out in complete silence and in an absolutely covert manner. This is the only way to make them effective.”
