His name is Evan Gershkovich. He is a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Gershkovich was in Russia reporting on the country’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine when he was detained last week.
He is the first American reporter detained by Moscow on suspicions of spying since the end of the Cold War.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called on Russia for the reporter’s “immediate release.”
Yesterday, the Biden Administration was preparing to declare Gershkovich as wrongfully detained by Russia.
“Once again, Russia’s desperate authoritarian regime has taken a U.S. citizen hostage — simply for being an American reporter. Russia must release Evan Gershkovich and other unjustifiably held Americans immediately,” Sen. Mark R. Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted last Thursday.
U.S. Marine Paul Whelan remains in Russia after serving four years of a 16-year sentence based on charges of being an American spy.
WNBA player Brittney Griner was detained in a Moscow airport and arrested February 17, 2022 after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. Griner had an American doctor’s recommendation for the drug, yet was sentenced August 4, 2022 to serve nine years in prison. A late October 2022 appeal was denied.
She was released in December after serving 10 months in exchange for “the Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout, who served 10 years of a 20-year sentence in the U.S.
Griner, 32, has been a center for the Phoenix Mercury since 2013, and was traveling through Russia early last year because she played for the UMMC Ekaterinburg in Yekaterinburg, the third largest city in Russia, during off seasons.
Griner has called on President Joe Biden to use “every tool possible” to bring Gershkovich home.
“Our hearts are filled with great concern for Evan Gershkovich and his family since Evan’s detainment in Russia. We must do everything in our power to bring him and all Americans home,” Griner and wife, Cherelle, said in a statement. “Every American who is taken is ours to fight for and every American returned is a win for us all.”
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Rebecca Barnabi
