MOSCOW – Donald Trump has posted on social media that he intends to use his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovitch released from a Russian prison.
President Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that this would happen right after the US presidential election in November, when he is looking to defeat President Biden and return to the White House.
“Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held by Russia, will be released soon after the election, but certainly before I take office. will return home safely and be with his family,” Trump said.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin will do it for me, but he won’t do it for anyone else. And we won’t pay anything!”
Trump did not mention any contact with Putin or give any reason to believe the Russian leader would release Gershkovich.
Asked about the comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin “naturally has not been in contact with Donald Trump.”
Gershkovic was arrested in Russia in March last year on suspicion of espionage, a charge strongly denied by him, his newspaper, and the Biden administration.
He has spent more than a year in a Moscow prison, and no trial date has been set.
Putin said in February: it might be possible In order to free him in exchange for a Russian imprisoned in Germany for murder.
Peskov reiterated previous Kremlin statements that any contacts with Washington about a prisoner exchange “must be conducted with complete silence and complete discretion. This is the only way they can be effective.”
During his presidential term from 2017 to 2021, Trump expressed admiration for Putin.
In 2018, Trump sparked criticism at home when he refused to blame Russia’s leader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and cast doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies.
President Trump also claimed he could end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of returning to the White House, but did not say how he would do so.
