House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to attend President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday to host the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been unjustly imprisoned in Russia for nearly a year.
Johnson’s office confirmed in a statement to Fox News Digital that Ella Millman and Mikhail Gershkovych will be special guests of the speaker.
“I am honored to welcome Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovych to the State of the Union address,” Prime Minister Johnson said in a statement.
”“By inviting Evan’s parents, Congress will shine a spotlight on their son’s wrongful detention.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovic turns 32 while being illegally detained in Russia
This undated photo shows Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. (Wall Street Journal via AP)
The Republican House speaker said the Biden administration “must bring Evan home.”
“The United States must always defend press freedom around the world, especially in places like Russia, where it is under attack,” Johnson said. “The administration must send Evan home.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson invited the parents of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday.
Gershkovic’s parents had previously implored the Biden administration to bring their son home.
“President Biden has a promise to do whatever it takes to bring Evan back. He also engages with us as parents, feels our pain, and we hear his words every day. But it’s been 250 years. Days have passed and Evan is not here,” his mother, Ella Millman, told Fox & Friends in December 2023. ” told Steve Doocy.
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“There’s still no effort to do whatever it takes,” Millman said.
March 29th marks the one-year anniversary of Gershkovic’s arrest by Russian authorities on suspicion of being a spy.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitch is escorted from the Lefortovsky courtroom in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, January 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlyanichenko)
Gershkovych was arrested on March 29, 2023, during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg. 4th largest city in Russia, And he was accused of being a spy.
The United States has long maintained that Russia’s claims are absurd, and colleagues have similarly argued that the hard-working reporter, the son of Soviet immigrants born in the United States, was used as a political pawn because of his high profile. It is said that it is
The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied the spying allegations against Gershkovic and called for his immediate release.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court on Thursday, December 14, 2023, in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)
His arrest is seen as a brazen violation of press freedom, with far-reaching implications not only for journalism and the media, but also for governments and democracies in all countries, and is seen as part of a broader crackdown on journalism by the authoritarian Russian Federation. Ta.
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“He’s definitely not a spy. That’s outrageous. He’s a reporter and he was there doing his job,” said Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
