Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov on Tuesday hinted at the possibility of a prisoner swap between two Americans being held in Russia, Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Speaking at an extended press conference at the United Nations, Mr. Lavrov said the channel to discuss detained US and Russian citizens was established when President Biden and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin met in Geneva in 2021. Lavrov said the channel did not provide “for the involvement of journalists”.
“This is work that is not public in nature and publicity here will only complicate the process,” Mr Lavrov said at the UN, where Russia is completing a contentious month-long stint as Security Council chairman, a rotating post.
Mr Lavrov said several US citizens were serving prison terms in Russia for various crimes, but Mr Whelan and Mr Gershkovich had been detained “committing a crime and receiving material” that he said consisted of state secrets.
Russia has provided no evidence of such allegations against Mr Gershkovich. Mr Whelan, a former US Marine, was arrested minutes after being given a USB stick by a Russian acquaintance that Russia said contained a secret list of his security agents. The Biden administration has classified both men as “mistakenly detained,” meaning political prisoners.
Mr Lavrov said Russia rejected the idea that journalists did not commit crimes, apparently referring to the phrase “journalism is not a crime” that press interest groups often quote in campaigns to release detained journalists around the world, such as Mr Gershkovich .
Mr. Gershkovich, who was on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg, was arrested on March 29 and charged with espionage, a charge his employer and the United States emphatically deny. He was formally charged on April 7 and remains in custody in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a detention center where detainees are held in isolation and are rarely visited by lawyers.
Mr Whelan was detained in December 2018, subsequently tried and convicted. He is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
The United States recently agreed with Russia to trade prisoners to release detained Americans — most notably for WNBA star Brittney Griner, in December, and Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine, in April 2022.
