US ambassador to Russia visits jailed journalist Gershkovich, calls for his release

Lynne Tracy, the United States ambassador to Russia, visited detained journalist Evan Gershkovich and reiterated her call for his release from nearly four and a half months of detention in the Russian prison on the charges of espionage. 

Tracy said through a spokesperson that the 31-year-old Wall Street journalist Gershkovich appeared to be “in good health” despite nearly four and a half months in detention.

“Once again, the United States calls on the Russian Federation to immediately release Evan Gershkovich and also to release wrongfully detained US citizen Paul Whelan,” the spokesperson said.

Gershkovich and Whelan, a former US Marine and corporate security expert, are being held on suspicion of espionage. The claims have been deemed false and politically motivated by the US, and both men have maintained their innocence.

On March 29, Gershkovich was detained while conducting a news story in Yekaterinburg, a Russian city close to the Ural Mountains. His April arrest was upheld by a court, thus he is now being kept in pre-trial detention.

The last time a US journalist was detained on espionage accusations was during the Cold War. 

Tracy and Gershkovich have met twice, once on April 17 and once on July 3.

Prior to this, US officials complained that they were denied access to the journalist who is being held in Moscow.

Whelan, meanwhile, was arrested in 2018 at a Moscow hotel after allegedly receiving a thumb drive with intelligence information, according to prosecutors. He was ultimately sentenced to 16 years in prison.

In 2022, the administration of US President Joe Biden said that officials had made a “serious offer” to get Whelan back as part of a prisoner swap.

However, when such a deal did come to pass in December, it only entailed the release of US basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been detained for marijuana possession. She was freed in return for the release of notorious "merchant of death" Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trader.

It was the second time Whelan had not been included in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

The US traded Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of cocaine smuggling, for Marine veteran Trevor Reed in April 2022. Reed had served three years in prison for allegedly attacking a police officer.

As the US continues to negotiate for another prisoner exchange, Whelan and his family have expressed concern that he could once again be left out of any potential swap.

“Paul’s fear of being left behind a third time was apparently palpable in his conversation with our parents yesterday,” his brother David Whelan told the Wall Street Journal in April.

Whelan’s and Gershkovich’s arrests have come during a period of heightened tensions between the US and Russia, particularly in the wake of the latter’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.