Russia announced on Wednesday that it has proposed a prisoner swap to the United States and is awaiting a response, just days before US journalist Evan Gershkovich is set to go on trial.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges. These charges have been vehemently denied by his family, his employer, and the White House.
In February, President Vladimir Putin mentioned that discussions about a potential prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich were in progress, but the Kremlin has remained tight-lipped on the details.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russia’s state TASS news agency, “The ball is in the United States’ court. We are waiting for them to respond to the ideas that were presented to them. These proposals are well known to the relevant parts of the US administration. If something doesn’t suit the Americans, that’s their problem. We consider our approaches to be fully justified and sensible.”
Gershkovich’s closed-door trial in Yekaterinburg is set for June 26, and if found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison. He is the first Western journalist charged with espionage in Russia since the Soviet era.
This case is part of a broader pattern of Americans being detained in Russia. Recently, a US soldier, Gordon Black, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison in Russia’s far east. Black, who was visiting a woman he had met while serving in South Korea, was convicted of threatening to kill her and stealing from her. He has pleaded “partially guilty” to theft but denied the threats, and his lawyer plans to appeal the verdict.
The US State Department has urged its citizens to leave Russia, citing dangers posed to Americans in the country. It has accused Moscow of detaining US citizens on dubious charges to use them as leverage in international negotiations.
The Kremlin has hinted at its willingness to negotiate a prisoner exchange but has not disclosed specifics. Putin has suggested that such a deal might include a Russian imprisoned in Germany for the murder of a Chechen dissident.
Other Americans detained in Russia include Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist arrested for not registering as a “foreign agent,” and former US Marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges and is serving a 16-year sentence. Whelan’s family, marking his 2,000th day in prison, expressed disappointment with the US government’s efforts to secure his release, criticizing the “weak White House support” despite backing from the US embassy in Moscow.
