Biden administration to declare reporter wrongfully arrested in Russia

The Biden administration is expected to officially declare the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich as wrongfully detained in Russia, two US officials told the CNN . The move will trigger new US government resources to work on the journalist’s release.

Also according to the sources, the designation is expected in the next few days and meets an ongoing internal review of the circumstances surrounding Gershkovich’s arrest. The State Department’s hostage affairs office will lead US efforts to free Gershkovich.

Russian authorities detained Gershkovich last week and charged him with spying, signaling a significant rise in tensions between Moscow and the United States and Russia’s campaign against foreign media.

The Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, said over the weekend that she hoped the US would quickly label Gershkovich as wrongfully detained, saying it would be an official acknowledgment that the allegations against the reporter are “utterly false.”

Gershkovich’s arrest marks the first time an American journalist has been detained on spying charges for Moscow since the Cold War.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke over the weekend with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for Gershkovich’s “immediate release”. But even before that conversation, the Biden administration delivered a clear message to Russia about the arrest.

On Thursday (30), the Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned to the State Department, where he met with the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, according to two US officials. Antonov did not respond to US pressure for Gershkovich’s release, he merely read Russia’s public statement on the incident, one of the US officials said.

Last week, State Department Assistant Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said he did not want to rush the lawsuit but said he did not believe there was any truth to the allegations against Gershkovich. John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, called the accusations “absurd”.

The prisoner exchanges led to the release of the last two Americans wrongfully detained in Russia. But as US officials begin to consider ways to secure Gershkovich’s release, some are concerned about a prisoner swap, which in this case could encourage the detention of US journalists, a US official said.