Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibility of a prisoner swap for detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, suggesting openness to exchanging him for a Russian hitman serving time in Germany.
While not explicitly proposing a swap, Putin indirectly referenced the case of the hitman, likely referring to Vadim Krasikov, who “eliminated a bandit” in a European capital out of patriotic sentiments.
The U.S. and Russia have a history of prisoner exchanges, exemplified by the December 2022 swap of American basketball player Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday that “an agreement can be reached” regarding the release of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, indicating his willingness to consider an exchange for a Russian prisoner serving time in Germany.
Putin’s remarks were translated by the team of former Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson, who conducted Putin’s first interview with Western media since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The extensive two-hour conversation also delved into Putin’s perspectives on history, the origins of the conflict in Ukraine, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence.
Putin didn’t directly propose a swap but indirectly drew a comparison between the case of 32-year-old Gershkovich and that of “a person serving a sentence in an allied country of the U.S.” This reference likely alludes to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman convicted by a German court for the killing of former Chechen dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in August 2019.
In Krasikov’s indictment, the German prosecution concluded that the crime was “committed on behalf of state authorities of the Russian Federation,” according to a translated statement.
Putin remarked on Thursday regarding the unnamed killer, “Whether he did it of his own volition or not. That is a different question.”
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t make sense to keep [Gershkovich] imprisoned in Russia. We expect the U.S. Special Services to consider how they can assist in achieving the objectives pursued by our special services. We are open to dialogue,” Putin stated, emphasizing that negotiations regarding the journalist’s fate were ongoing.
The Wall Street Journal vehemently refutes the espionage allegations against Gershkovich, one of its correspondents in Russia. The newspaper asserts that Gershkovich was on a legitimate reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg before his imprisonment in March 2023.
Prisoner swaps
Both Washington and Moscow have a history of prisoner exchanges. In December 2022, American basketball player Brittney Griner, convicted of drug smuggling in Russia, was released in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer apprehended in Thailand and extradited to the U.S.
The U.S. State Department and Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have yet to respond to CNBC’s request for comment on whether they would consider such an arrangement.
Putin contends that Gershkovich, whose pre-trial detention was prolonged by two months in late January, was apprehended “red-handed” while clandestinely obtaining confidential intelligence. The Russian president acknowledged on Thursday that he is unaware of which agency the journalist was purportedly working for.
“He was clandestinely acquiring classified, confidential information. Perhaps he acted out of carelessness or on his own initiative,” Putin remarked.
The Wall Street Journal has consistently asserted that Gershkovich has not violated any laws.
“Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any suggestion otherwise is entirely fabricated. Evan was unjustly arrested and has been unlawfully detained by Russia for almost a year for simply doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release,” the newspaper declared in response to Putin’s remarks.
“We’re optimistic about Russia’s willingness to negotiate a resolution that reunites Evan with his family and our newsroom swiftly.”
Gershkovich isn’t the sole journalist linked to the U.S. encountering the Kremlin’s punitive legal actions. Recently, a Russian court extended the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on charges related to “foreign agent” laws, as reported by Reuters.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has implemented stringent censorship measures targeting journalists. These wartime laws criminalize actions such as discrediting the Russian military or spreading deliberate misinformation about the conflict. Consequently, numerous Western news organizations have shuttered their local bureaus and recalled their reporters from Russia due to safety apprehensions.
