Former President Donald Trump is confident he can get Russia to release jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich if he’s elected president in November.
Trump, 77, called on Russia to free Gershkovich for the first time since the journalist’s arrest last year in an interview with Time magazine released Tuesday.
“The reporter should be released and he will be released,” Trump told the outlet.
The presumptive Republican nominee for president, however, expressed doubt that Gershkovich, 32, will be let out before the 2024 presidential election .
“I don’t know if he’s going to be released under Biden,” Trump said.
“I would get him released,” he vowed.
When asked why it has taken him more than a year to call for Gershkovich’s release, Trump responded, “I guess because I have so many other things I’m working on.”
Gershkovich was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for allegedly violating the country’s anti-espionage laws, during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in late March 2023.
Russian authorities have accused the US citizen of “acting on the instructions of the American side” and collecting state secrets about the military.
Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have vehemently denied the allegations, and the US government has declared him to be “wrongfully detained”.
A Moscow court rejected the reporter’s appeal last week to be released from pretrial detention, ruling that he must stay behind bars in Russia until at least June 30.
Russian authorities have not shown any evidence to support the espionage charges against Gershkovich.
