Marking 1 year since WSJ’s Gershkovich jailed, Biden vows to continue ‘imposing costs’ on Russia

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden says the United States will continue to “impose costs” on Russia for its imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested one year ago.

The Journal marked the March 29 anniversary by leaving most of its front page empty below a headline reading, “HIS STORY SHOULD BE HERE.” Every other article and headline on the front page involved Gershkovich.

“Today we mark a painful anniversary: one year of American journalist Evan Gershkovich’s wrongful detention in Russia,” Biden says in a statement.

“As I have told Evan’s parents, I will never give up hope either,” he says. “We will continue working every day to secure his release. We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips.”

Gershkovich, the 32-year-old American son of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union, has been held on espionage charges since March 29, 2023, when he was arrested by Russian agents while on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, the US government and The Wall Street Journal deny the allegations, for which the Russian government has not provided evidence. His arrest came amid an ongoing crackdown on the press in Russia during its war on Ukraine.