NEW YORK — On the one-year anniversary of the Russian detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, President Joe Biden mentioned that the U.S. is working each day to ensure his release.
“Reporting the news is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a journalist — risking his safety to reveal the truth about Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement Friday.
Gershkovich was taken into custody while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, claims that he was following U.S. orders to gather state secrets but did not provide any evidence to support the accusation, which he, the Journal, and the U.S. government reject. Washington labeled his detention as unjust.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal’s front page featured a large empty space with an image of Gershkovich at the top of the page in the newspaper’s recognizable pencil drawing and a headline that said: “His Story Should be Here.”
A recent court hearing did not provide much new information about Gershkovich’s case. He was instructed to remain in custody until the trial at least until June 30, marking the fifth extension of his detention.
However, the periodic court hearings do offer Gershkovich’s family, friends, and U.S. officials a glimpse of him. And for the 32-year-old journalist, it provides a break from his otherwise mostly monotonous prison routine.
Biden mentioned in the statement that he would never lose hope.
“We will continue working each day to secure his release,” the Democratic president commented. “We will continue to condemn and impose consequences for Russia’s shocking attempts to use Americans as bargaining tools. And we will continue to stand firm against all those who attempt to attack the press or target journalists — the foundations of free society.”
Biden stated that the U.S. was working to liberate all Americans held captive or unjustly detained abroad.
Another American accused of spying is Paul Whelan, a business executive from Michigan. He was arrested in 2018 in Russia and two years later was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whelan, who stated that he traveled to Moscow to attend a friend’s wedding, has maintained his innocence and claimed that the charges against him were invented.
