Strong hints from the Russian authorities that US journalist Evan Gershkovich is to be exchanged for a Russian agent who murdered a Chechen dissident in Berlin may provide some comfort to the Gershkovich family. However, this does not take away from the outrageous nature of his espionage conviction on manufactured charges. A 16-year hard-labour sentence handed down against him on Thursday and now hanging over him.
The threat to Gershkovich and to other foreign citizens still in jail, including journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty remains very real.
Gershkovich, a 32 year-old Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg allegedly gathering information on a local tank factory, has been held so far for 478 days on secret evidence, his trial in camera widely condemned internationally and described by his editor as a “sham”.
It is the first conviction of a US journalist for espionage in Russia since the Cold War ended but has all the hallmarks of the classic spy swaps of those days. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin have both acknowledged swap talks are under way and the latter has spoken of his desire to bring back Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for shooting dead a former Chechen rebel commander in Berlin. He has already been the subject of several previous unsuccessful swap bids by Moscow.
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A Putin pardon could only be forthcoming after the Gershkovich conviction, recently unexpectedly expedited. The decision may be appealed within 15 days, delaying any swap, but Moscow would almost certainly prefer Gershkovich not to appeal so that it could claim his conviction was uncontested.
But whatever the real Russian motivation, it is clear that Gershkovich was a reporter going about his job. As US president Joe Biden said in response: " journalism is not a crime.”
He should be released.