The US has confirmed talks with Russia’s authorities over a prisoner swap for jailed journalist Evan Gershkovich, although ‘no clear answer’ as to how it is going to be arranged is ready yet, The New York Times cites Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor to President Joe Biden.
Sullivan said that he did not want to give “false hope.” “The discussions had not yet produced “a clear pathway to a resolution,” he stated.
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that “there are certain contacts on the matter [of prisoner swap], but those cannot be discussed in public”.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia’s FSB department of Counterintelligence Operations (DKRO) was in charge of Gershkovich’s arrest. WSJ says DKRO employees are also involved in spying on high-ranking Americans in Russia, including infiltrating their homes and recruiting employees of the US embassy.
Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg on 29 March. Media reports suggest that he was surveying Russians about their attitudes towards the Wagner Group and travelled to the city of Nizhny Tagil where a defence-industry factory Uralvagonzavod is located. He was sent to a Moscow detention centre the next day. Bloomberg previously reported that Vladimir Putin personally gave the FSB the green light to take the reporter in custody.
