Russian President Vladimir Putin upped the ante on his US counterpart Joe Biden by arresting Evan Gershkovich, the daily’s correspondent The Wall Street Journal in Moscow, and accuse him of espionage. “He was caught red-handed,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajárova.
Several observers have pointed out that the arrest in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city in the Urals region, was announced without many details. But the scenario between the two countries has changed because since the demise of the Soviet Union, Moscow has not accused any journalist of espionage, although it has spied on some. In addition, the arrest occurs in the middle of the conflict over the invasion of Ukraine. Gershkovich is one of the few American journalists left in Russia.
This Friday Biden urged Russia to release the reporter.
“Let him go,” Biden told reporters when asked about his message to Russia over Gershkovich’s arrest. The day before, the White House specified that it was working to ensure consular access to Gershkovich.
And when Biden was asked Friday if he would expel Russian diplomats or journalists in the United States, he said: “It’s not the plan right now.”
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, called the attack on US citizens in Russia “unacceptable” and said the government condemned Gershkovich’s detention “in the strongest terms.”
In fact, the State Department has issued a warning not to travel to Russia and to immediately abandon it to the Americans in the country.
In Moscow Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta and co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, said that “Gershkovich was not an agent who used his professional and journalistic credentials as a cover for espionage.”
Speaking more generally about the Kremlin’s crackdown on independent journalism, which has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine, Muratov specified that “it’s a trend: trying to pin espionage and treason on the people at every step, to show that the profession of journalist is a profession enemy of the country, of Russian journalists and of other countries”.
