American journalist Evan Gershkovich asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for an interview in a request for clemency. The Wall Street Journal wrote this in an article about the release of its correspondent from a Russian prison. Gershkovich is one of three American citizens released from prison by Russia in Thursday’s prisoner swap with Western countries. Kremlin spokesman Dimitriy Peskov did not completely rule out the conversation.
Before his release, Gershkovich had to according to the diary to fill out an official request for pardon, which is addressed to the Russian president. The form also includes a section where the prisoner can enter his comment. It was there that Gershkovich wrote his request for an interview with Putin.
“If we receive such a request – we will consider it,” Peskov said regarding Gershkovich’s request, according to TASS. However, according to the spokesman, Putin receives a number of interview requests from foreign media.
Gershkovich was released and returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries. The journalist was arrested by the Russian FSB secret service at the end of March last year in a restaurant in Yekaterinburg. In this city in the Urals, an American journalist was working on an article about how the local people feel about the war in Ukraine, he was also interested in Wagner’s group.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office accused Gershkovich of “gathering secret information” on the orders of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) about the Uralvagonzavod arms company, whose plant about 150 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg produces and repairs tanks and other military equipment.
Last month, a court in Yekaterinburg found Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. Already during the trial, some diplomats said that the Russians probably detained Gershkovich in an attempt to acquire a “stockpile” of American citizens, which they could exchange for Russian citizens detained in the West.
Russia and Belarus released another 15 people as part of the exchange. Russia took over ten people in Ankara. It was the largest exchange of prisoners between Moscow and the West since the end of the Cold War.
Video: Prisoner exchange footage shows Putin hugging Krasikov’s killer (08/01/2024)
Footage from the prisoner exchange shows Putin hugging the killer Krasikov (the man in the blue cap). | Video: Associated Press
