Newsman: President Biden wants Russia to release arrested US journalist. This is the first time Biden has publicly commented on the matter since Gershkovich was accused of espionage by Russian authorities Thursday.
President Biden was asked by CNN what his message to Russia is following the detainment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
“Let him go,” the president said as he departed the White House Friday morning.
Asked later by another reporter if the US would expel Russian diplomats or journalists over the detention of Gershkovich, Biden said, “That’s not the plan right now.”
Later on Friday, US Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “deeply concerned” about Gershkovich.
“I will state in unequivocal terms that we will not tolerate and condemn, in fact, repression of journalists and that we are absolutely concerned about any attempt to in any way stifle freedom of the press,” Harris said in a press conference with Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema in Lusaka.
Russian authorities on Thursday arrested an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal on spying charges.
Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement, which was reported by state media. The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.
