The Biden administration has offered a major prisoner swap for the release of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan, the latter who has been locked up for years at this point.
As for Gershkovich, he’s reached 250 days of pre-trial confinement, after his arrest on spy charges last March. “In recent weeks, we made a new and significant proposal to secure Paul and Evan’s release,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a briefing Tuesday. “That proposal was rejected by Russia.”
Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal acknowledged of efforts to free Gershkovich, “The passage of time dictates that we work harder than ever to sustain our efforts until Evan is free.” It’s as yet unknown precisely what prisoner or prisoners may have been offered to Moscow, or whether the offer took another form, such as some level of sanctions relief (which remains unlikely).
Further, an unnamed US official was cited in the WSJ as confirming the State Department is “constantly discussing this issue with third countries who can assist.”
Apparently…
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