Joe Biden’s message to Russia yesterday was “Let him go,” as he faced pressure to act after the arrest of an American newspaper correspondent. But asked whether he would expel Russian diplomats or journalists in response, he said: “That’s not the plan right now.”
van Gershkovich, who is based in Moscow for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested while on assignment to Yekaterinburg on Wednesday. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has charged him with espionage. He is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, where the FSB keeps high-value prisoners.
The Wall Street Journal, along with Gershkovich’s friends and colleagues, denied the FSB allegations and demanded his release.
The paper’s editorial board yesterday said the arrest demonstrated a “declining ability to deter assaults on its citizens”, and called on Mr Biden to consider “diplomatic and political escalation.”
The board added: “The timing of the arrest looks like a calculated provocation to embarrass the US and intimidate the foreign press still working in Russia.”
Gershkovich is the first American reporter in Russia to be charged with espionage since Nicholas Daniloff — a US News and World Report journalist — was arrested in 1986.
Daniloff, who denied the spying charges, was released three weeks later in exchange for a Soviet diplomat detained by the FBI.
Russian political analysts have suggested Gershkovich will similarly be used as a bargaining chip for the release of Russian agents who are being held in the US and other Western countries.
Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel prize-winning Russian newspaper editor, said Gershkovich was clearly not a spy and that he was being targeted to intimidate the press.
“I know Gershkovich. I’ve met him two or three times over the last year. I know the practice exists of using journalists as spies, intelligence officers and ‘illegals’ [undeclared spies] – this is not that kind of case,” Muratov said.
Referring to Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who was sentenced to 22 years in jail for treason last year, he added: “At every turn, we’re being charged with espionage and treason. It’s a trend to show that journalism is a dangerous profession... both for Russian and other journalists.”
The Kremlin denied that it was cracking down on foreign correspondents in Russia and said accredited reporters could continue to work.
“All journalists who have valid accreditation here – I mean foreign journalists – can and do continue their journalistic activity in the country. They do not face any restrictions and are working fine,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said yesterday.
Gershkovich was fully accredited with the foreign ministry and had worked in Moscow for six years.
Accredited journalists who incur the government’s displeasure have occasionally faced harassment or expulsion from Russia in recent years, but none have been jailed since the Cold War. (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2023)
Telegraph Media Group Limited [2023]