Trump says Putin would release Evan Gershkovich for him, Kremlin denies contact

The former US president posts online that jailed WSJ reporter ‘will be released almost immediately’ after election, should Trump defeat Biden in November

File: Then-US President-elect Donald Trump, left, in Palm Beach, Florida, December 28, 2016; Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow, December 23, 2016. (AFP Photo/Don Emmert, Natalia Kolesnikova)
File: Then-US President-elect Donald Trump, left, in Palm Beach, Florida, December 28, 2016; Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow, December 23, 2016. (AFP Photo/Don Emmert, Natalia Kolesnikova)

Former US president Donald Trump posted on social media Thursday that he will use his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovich freed from a Russian prison.

Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that this would happen soon after the November election in the United States, in which he is seeking to defeat President Joe Biden and return to the White House.

“Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY,” Trump said.

“Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!”

Trump did not refer to any contacts with Putin or say what grounds he had to believe that the Russian leader would release Gershkovich.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Putin had not had any contact with Trump.

“Here, Putin has naturally not had contacts with Donald Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that contacts about detained persons must be conducted out of public view, saying that is “the only way they can be effective.”

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside a glass cage before a hearing on his appeal against his extended detention, at the Moscow City Court, in Moscow on June 22, 2023. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP)

Gershkovich, a 32-year-old reporter at The Wall Street Journal, is the son of Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union.

He was arrested by the Federal Security Service while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg on March 29, 2023 and has been held at Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions, on charges of espionage.

Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal and the US government deny the allegations of espionage, for which Russian authorities have yet to provide any evidence.

Putin said in February it might be possible to free the reporter in exchange for a Russian imprisoned in Germany for murder.

During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump expressed admiration for Putin. In 2018, he refused to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 US election, casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies and sparking criticism at home.

Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of returning to the White House, though he has not said how he would do this.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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