The Kremlin reported on Thursday “contacts” in progress with a view to a possible exchange of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage and imprisoned in Russia for around a year.
• Read also: Detention of American journalist Gershkovich extended until June 30
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Reporter for the “Wall Street Journal”, Evan Gershkovich, aged 32 and who also worked for the AFP in Moscow between 2020 and 2021, was arrested in March 2023 by the FSB during a report in Yekaterinburg, in the ‘Ural.
He rejects the “espionage” charges brought against him, punishable by 20 years in prison, as do the United States, his newspaper and his relatives. Russia never publicly provided any evidence and the entire procedure was classified secret.
Washington accuses Moscow of having taken him hostage to exchange him for Russians detained in Western countries, like several American citizens arrested in recent years in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin said he was willing to exchange the journalist for Vadim Krassikov, imprisoned for life in Germany for the murder of a Chechen opponent in Berlin in 2019.
“We have repeatedly emphasized that certain contacts are underway, but they must be carried out in absolute silence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
“Breaking this silence will only create more problems and prevent any result from being achieved in this process,” he added, without elaborating.
A Russian court this week extended the pre-trial detention of Evan Gershkovich until June 30.
Mr. Peskov assured Thursday that he had no information on a possible date for the start of the trial.
