The prisoner swap seems to be the only useful rapport connecting the United States and Russia. Last year, the Biden administration put on a full-court press to swap a prominent US professional woman basketball player held in a Moscow prison on drug charges for Russian Viktor Bout, an international criminal known as the “Merchant of Death.” Since then, the Kremlin has embraced arresting US citizens on phony charges, then trading them for high-value Russian criminals. The latest US citizen to run afoul of Moscow’s inclination to apprehend Americans is Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich.
Russians Seeking Prisoner Swap Find WSG Reporter
Gershkovich, 31, was credentialed by the Foreign Ministry as a journalist. A fluent Russian speaker, he was on assignment in the city of Yekaterinburg when he was arrested on espionage charges and put behind bars in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison. He had been reporting for the WSJ on the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine from a Russian perspective. A Reuters account explained that, though living in London, Gershkovich knew it was dangerous to make frequent trips to Russia: “It was on one such trip, to the industrial town of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, that he was arrested this week (March 29) by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, successor to the Soviet KGB.”
In a press statement on April 10, nearly two weeks after Gershkovich’s incarceration, Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesman for the US Department of State, declared:
“Today, Secretary [Anthony] Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia. Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth. The US government will provide all appropriate support to Mr. Gershkovich and his family. We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr. Gershkovich.”
However, the journalist’s days in prison may be coming to an end. Russian authorities gave US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy permission to meet with the WSJ correspondent on July 3, the first encounter between the American and a US embassy official since April. Some believe Tracy’s visit was the overture to a release. “Russia is in contact with the US regarding prisoner swaps, a Kremlin spokesman said in a briefing, after consular visits to Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich detained in Russia and a Russian held in the US,” Georgi Kantchev and Louise Radnofsky reported for The Wall Street Journal.
(Photo by William F. Campbell/Getty Images)
The Russian being considered in the swap is an unsavory character, Vladimir Dunaev. “According to court documents, Vladimir Dunaev, 38, was a member of a transnational cybercriminal organization that deployed a computer banking trojan and ransomware suite of malware known as ‘Trickbot.’ Trickbot attacked businesses and victims across the globe and infected millions of computers for theft and ransom,” a US Department of Justice press release stated.
US Marine Veteran in Russian Prison Still Waiting
While the State Department is making a concerted effort to get Gershkovich out, Paul Whelan, an American businessman and former US Marine, is being held prisoner in Russia for allegedly participating in an intelligence operation. Whelan also is considered by the White House to be “wrongfully detained,” a designation committing the US government to gain his release. Whelan is not a high-profile detainee however.
Nonetheless, as Whelan sits in a Russian prison cell, he is still hopeful the US government will come to his aid. “I remain positive and confident on a daily basis that the wheels are turning. I just wish they would turn a little bit more quickly,” Whelan told CNN News in a May phone call from his detention facility. Unfortunately, considering for whom the wheels turn, they may not turn quickly for thee, Paul Whelan.
