Add Category
Some analysts have noted that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips after US-Russian tensions soared when Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At least two US citizens arrested in Russia in recent years, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the US.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US government have strenuously denied.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been charged with espionage.Credit: The Wall Street Journal
Moscow City Court has rejected an appeal against detention filed by Gershkovich’s lawyers. The journalist will spend at least a year in custody before coming to trial.
Earlier this month in an interview with Tucker Carlson, a US political commentator, Putin hinted that Russia would be willing to release Gershkovich in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman detained in Germany for the murder of a Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019.
News of the arrest came at the same time the White House said it was preparing additional “major sanctions” on Russia in response to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Kirby said a new package of sanctions would be unveiled by the end of the week.
Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, meanwhile has appealed to President Vladimir Putin to intervene and turn her son’s body over to her so she can bury him with dignity.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, who has been trying to get his body since Saturday, appeared on a video on Tuesday outside the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died.
Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny’s mother Lyudmila Navalnaya speaks near the prison colony in the town of Kharp, Russia.Credit: Navalny Team via AP
“For the fifth day, I have been unable to see him. They wouldn’t release his body to me. And they’re not even telling me where he is,” a black-clad Navalnaya said in the video, with the barbed wire of Penal Colony No. 3 in Kharp, about 1900 kilometres north-east of Moscow.
“I’m reaching out to you, Vladimir Putin. The resolution of this matter depends solely on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexei’s body is released immediately, so that I can bury him like a human being,” she said in the video, which was posted to social media by Navalny’s team.
Loading
Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and refused to release his body for the next two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, members of his team said.
They accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence. On Monday, Navalny’s widow, Yulia, released a video accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.
“They are cowardly and meanly hiding his body, refusing to give it to his mother and lying miserably,” she said.
Lyudmila Navalnaya and her son’s lawyers went to law enforcement agencies and the morgue where the body is believed to be held in the Arctic region, but were unable to get them to turn it over or say where it is.
Late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.Credit: AP
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations of a cover-up, telling reporters that “these are absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
AP, Reuters
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.