Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on March 30 for espionage, is by far the most important American prisoner in Russia, so he will be the subject of the most serious exchange negotiations. Such a review in the RTVI program “What was it?!” Express member of the Human Rights Council to the Russian President, journalist Eva Merkacheva.
“I believe that now he will be the number one figure among prisoners of American citizenship. And I think it’s on his exchange that they will now negotiate, and most likely, there will be the most serious, if I may say so, bargaining, because now it’s even difficult to say who Evan will be asked . It will be, I think, a really serious and enlightening exchange. And now we are going to witness how it all happens. And then, I don’t know whether they will be exchanged for espionage on the bridge, as it was in the Soviet years, but in any case, I am absolutely sure that such an exchange will take place in a near future,” she said.
A member of the HRC described Gershkovich’s situation as “unique”, as it is the first case of an American journalist being arrested in a long time. At the same time, she pointed out that Gershkovich himself was “a man with an unusual fate”: his parents were from the Soviet Union, and he, being an American citizen, lived and worked a lot in Moscow.
Merkacheva also added that Gershkovich “is familiar to almost the entire journalistic community” in the capital. His papers, in addition to the WSJ, have also appeared in The New York Times and other major publications, said a member of the Human Rights Council under Russia’s presidency.
According to her, “this is truly the loudest and most flamboyant arrest of all time”. Therefore, Merkacheva is sure that “the process will be as closed as possible” so that the photos in it will not “scatter all over the world.”
“Of course, they will say that there is data that constitutes a state secret. All of this is an excuse not to let journalists in and, as I said, to keep the whole process as secret as possible,” she added.
Nevertheless, noted Eva Merkacheva, it is unlikely that the HRC will issue a collective statement against the journalist, so it will be necessary to await the results of the investigation and a new trial.
On March 30, the Russian FSB announced that Gershkovich had been detained in Yekaterinburg. A criminal espionage case has been brought against him. The FSB said that Gershkovich, on instructions from the United States, was collecting information constituting a state secret about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex. On the same day, the journalist was taken to Moscow, where the Lefortovo court detained him for two months. The Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Gershkovich’s arrest, said he was “caught in the act”. For its part, the WSJ editorial said it was deeply concerned for the safety of its journalist and “categorically denies” the charges against him. In his column, WSJ editors suggested that Gershkovich was arrested in exchange for Russians accused in the United States of committing crimes. The publication called on President Joe Biden’s administration to seek the journalist’s release and, at a minimum, expel the Russian ambassador and all Russian journalists from the United States. The Kremlin called the WSJ’s call “absurd.” March 31 US President Joe Biden Joe Biden in response to a question from White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell urged release Gershkovich. “Let him go,” he said. At the same time, Biden added that they have no plans to expel Russian journalists from the country.
