Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov hints at possible prisoner swaps for Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Tuesday hinted at the possibility of a prisoner exchange involving two Americans detained in Russia, Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Speaking at an extensive press conference at the United Nations, Lavrov said the channel for discussion of detained American and Russian citizens was created when President Biden and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin met in Geneva in 2021. At that time, Mr. Lavrov said, the channel did not provide “participation of journalists”.
“This is non-public work in nature, and going public here will only complicate the process,” Lavrov said at the United Nations, where Russia is ending a lengthy Security Council presidency. a month full of controversy, a rotating position.
Lavrov said that a number of US citizens were serving prison sentences in Russia for various crimes, but Mr Whelan and Mr Gershkovich were detained “while they were committing crimes, receiving documents” which he insisted were secret. government.
Russia has provided no evidence of such allegations against Mr. Gershkovich. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was detained minutes after he was given a USB stick by a Russian acquaintance that contained a secret list of its security personnel. The Biden administration has classified both men as “wrongfully detained,” the equivalent of being political prisoners.
Lavrov said Russia rejects the notion that journalists are not guilty, apparently referring to the phrase “journalism is not a crime” that press advocacy groups often cite in their campaign for compensation. freedom for imprisoned journalists around the world, like Mr. Gershkovich.
Mr. Gershkovich, who was on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, was arrested on March 29 and charged with espionage, a charge his employer and the United States firmly deny. He was formally charged on April 7 and remains incarcerated at Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, a center for inmates in isolation and rarely visited by lawyers.
Mr Whelan was detained in December 2018, then tried and convicted. He is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
The United States recently agreed to a prisoner swap with Russia to free American detainees — most notably for WNBA star Brittney Griner in December and Trevor Reed, a former Marine United States, in April 2022.
