WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Thursday he’s willing to pursue a prisoner exchange to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia for over 100 days on espionage charges.
“I’m serious about a prisoner exchange,” Biden said during a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, where he was wrapping up a five-day trip to Europe.
“I’m serious about doing all we can to free Americans being illegally held in Russia or anywhere else for that matter,” he said.
Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was detained in Yekaterinburg – Russia’s fourth largest city, about 1,035 miles east of Moscow – in March following Russian accusations that he was spying on behalf of the U.S. government.
Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed that Gershkovich was acting on U.S. orders to collect information on the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex that constitutes a state secret. He was formally charged with espionage in April.
Gershkovich and his employer deny the allegations. The U.S. government has declared him wrongfully detained.
The Kremlin indicated last week that it would entertain discussions with the U.S. about a possible prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian national held in pretrial detention in Ohio on federal cybercrime charges.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed last week that there have been discussions about a possible prisoner swap, but stressed that so far those talks haven’t resulted in a clear pathway to Gershkovich’s freedom.
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.
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