Russian Negotiations Are Open For Potential Prisoner Exchange For US Journalist Evan Gershkovich

The Kremlin reiterated on Tuesday that any discussions with the US on a prospective prisoner swap—which may include imprisoned Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich—must take place in secret.

When asked if a prisoner swap might be in the works following Monday’s consular visits to Gershkovich, a Russian citizen who has been detained in Moscow since March on espionage charges, and Vladimir Dunaev, a US citizen who is being held on cybercrime charges, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow and Washington have discussed the possibility.

In a conference call with reporters, Peskov said, “We have said that there have been specific contacts on the subject, but we don’t want them to be discussed in public.” They must be performed and carried out in quiet.

He could not provide any further information, but he did say that “all parties’ legitimate rights to consular interactions must be guaranteed.

Lynne Tracy, the US ambassador to Moscow, was given permission to see Gershkovich on Monday for the first time since April. More information was not immediately given by the US Embassy.

On a journalistic trip to Russia, the 31-year-old Gershkovich was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg. He is being incarcerated in the notoriously harsh Lefortovo jail in Moscow. Last Monday, a Moscow court affirmed the decision to keep him detained until August 30.

The claims are refuted by Gershkovich and his company, and the US government says he was unfairly held. His detention alarmed reporters in Russia, where the authorities have not offered any proof to back up the espionage allegations.

Since the KGB detained Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, in September 1986, Nicholas Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be charged with espionage in Russia. Daniloff was freed 20 days later in exchange for a Soviet Union UN employee who had also been detained by the FBI on suspicion of espionage.

On US cybercrime accusations, Dunaev was extradited from South Korea and is now being held in Ohio. For the first time since his arrest in 2021, Russian officials were given consular access to him on Monday, according to Nadezhda Shumova, the chief of the Russian Embassy’s consular division, in statements reported by the Tass news agency.