The United States and Russia are reportedly negotiating a high-stakes prisoner swap that could see Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich freed from a Russian penal colony.
Gershkovich was sentenced last month to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage.
The Wall Street Journal has been vocal in its support for Gershkovich, who has spent more than a year behind bars since his arrest in March 2023 while covering news in Yekaterinburg.
Western Journal previously reported:
Evan Gershkovich was ordered to serve the sentence at a high-security penal colony, the Journal reported.
“The court’s Friday verdict — after three days of hearings — was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion, since acquittals in Russian espionage trials are exceedingly rare,” according to the report.
“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker and Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour said in a statement.
Russian officials “have produced no public evidence to support their allegations,” the Journal reported.
“Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S.,” The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. State Department said Gershkovich was “wrongfully detained” and said it is working to secure his release.
President Joe Biden was quoted as saying, “We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so.
Former CIA agent Larry Johnson, writing for The Gateway Pundit, offered a controversial perspective on Gershkovich’s situation. Johnson suggested that Gershkovich, although naive, may have been unwittingly used by CIA or U.S. Defense Attache officers to gather information.
Johnson wrote:
The Russians are charging him with espionage. In light of information released since he was arrested, it appears he was used, unwittingly, by CIA or the U.S. Defense Attache officers to collect information that he intended to publish in the Wall Street Journal.
I remain convinced that Gershkovich is a naive, gullible reporter who had no idea that any effort on his part to gather information to report on the Russian defense industry would be viewed legitimately by the Russians as espionage.
Why do I say this? Reports that I have read reveal he made regular visits to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. A real spy would not do something so stupid, especially in Russia.
Gershkovich was incredibly naive in my view. He failed to understand that going to the U.S. Embassy would bring him unwelcome attention from Russian security services. I am sure that in his mind, routine chats with U.S. “diplomats” was part of his job as a reporter.
I am pretty confident that CIA officers assigned to U.S. Embassy Moscow would not reveal their true identities or employment with the CIA to Gershkovich.
He may have suspected that some of his interlocutors had intel ties, but it is equally plausible that he really believed he was meeting with diplomats and military officials in order to get their views on events in Ukraine and the implications for those on the political situation in Russia that he could use in his articles for the WSJ.
Regardless of his intent, the Russians appear to have a strong case to charge him with espionage. Not a good place for Gershkovich.
Now, Fox News has reported that Gershkovich could be returned to the U.S. as early as Thursday as part of a prisoner swap.
Fox News reporter Trace Gallagher reported:
“The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that its reporter, Evan Gershkovich, is slated to come back to the United States tomorrow as part of a prisoner exchange, raising questions about the accuracy of this information. This is Jennifer Griffin, the National Security Correspondent, providing us with this update. Again, they have been working on this deal. Gershkovich has been held and was recently sentenced to nearly 20 years, which many believed would pave the way for some type of exchange. Now, there are reports that the exchange may have been completed.”
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