NEW YORK -- On the one-year anniversary of the Russian detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, President Joe Biden said the United States is working every day to secure his release.
"Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter -- risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine," Biden said in a statement Friday.
Biden told reporters later Friday that he held Gershkovich in high regard.
"I admire the hell out of him," Biden said before he traveled from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to the Camp David presidential retreat. "We're not giving up."
Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Federal Security Service alleges that he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation, which he, the Journal and the U.S. government deny. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.
On Friday, there was a giant blank space on the front page of The Wall Street Journal with an image at the top of the page of Gershkovich in the newspaper's signature pencil drawing and a headline that read: "His Story Should be Here."
The top four leaders in Congress issued a joint statement Friday marking one year of Gershkovich's detainment and calling for his release in a rare moment of bipartisan unity in Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in the statement that they "continue to condemn his baseless arrest, fabricated charges and unjust imprisonment."
"Journalism is not a crime, and reporters are not bargaining chips. The Kremlin's attempts to silence Evan and intimidate other Western reporters will not impede the pursuit of truth," they added.
The group also spoke out against Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he "is restoring Soviet-style control through repression at home and aggression abroad."
A recent court hearing offered little new information on Gershkovich's case. He was ordered to remain behind bars pending trial at least until June 30, the fifth extension of his detention.
But the periodic court hearings at least give Gershkovich's family and friends and U.S. officials a glimpse of him. And for the 32-year-old journalist, it's a break from his otherwise largely monotonous prison routine.
Biden said in the statement that he would never give up hope.
"We will continue working every day to secure his release," he said. "We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia's appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips. And we will continue to stand strong against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists -- the pillars of free society."
Biden said the U.S. was working to free all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.
Another American accused of espionage is Paul Whelan, a corporate executive from Michigan. He was arrested in 2018 in Russia and sentenced two years later to 16 years in prison. Whelan, who said he traveled to Moscow to attend a friend's wedding, has maintained his innocence and said the charges against him were fabricated.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that Gershkovich and Whelan have "remained resilient despite the circumstances of living in Russian detention."
"People are not bargaining chips," Blinken said. "Russia should end its practice of arbitrarily detaining individuals for political leverage and should immediately release Evan and Paul."
OFFER REJECTED
In December, the State Department said it had made a significant offer to secure the release of Gershkovich and Whelan, which it said Russia had rejected.
Officials did not describe the offer, although Russia has been said to be seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was given a life sentence in Germany in 2021 for the killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan "Tornike" Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany.
Putin, asked this year about releasing Gershkovich, appeared to refer to Krasikov by pointing to a man imprisoned by a U.S. ally for "liquidating a bandit" who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.
Beyond that hint, Russian officials have kept mum about the talks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeatedly said that while "certain contacts" on swaps continue, "they must be carried out in absolute silence."
The U.S. has had some success in recent years negotiating high-profile prisoner swaps with Russia, striking deals in 2022 that resulted in the releases of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Marine veteran Trevor Reed. Griner and Reed were designated as wrongfully detained.
In the exchanges for them, Moscow got arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S., and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, given a 20-year prison term in the U.S. for cocaine trafficking.
Others detained include Travis Leake, a musician who had been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges; Marc Fogel, a teacher in Moscow who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.
Kurmasheva, a Prague-based editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Tatar-Bashkir service, was arrested October 2023 in her hometown of Kazan, where she traveled to see her ailing elderly mother. She has faced multiple charges, including not self-reporting as a "foreign agent" and spreading false information about the army.
Khavana, of Los Angeles, returned to Russia to visit family and was arrested on treason charges. According to Pervy Otdel, a rights group that specializes in treason cases, the charges against her stem from a $51 donation to a U.S. charity that helps Ukraine.
The precise number of Americans jailed in Russia is unclear, but the cases of Gershkovich and Whelan have received the most attention.
Information for this article was contributed by Colleen Long, Dasha Litvinova and Eric Tucker of The Associated Press and by Maegan Vazquez and Amy B Wang of The Washington Post.
A billboard calling for release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, is seen on the one year anniversary of his imprisonment in Russia, in New York's Times Square, Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A billboard calling for release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, is seen on the one year anniversary of his imprisonment in Russia, in New York's Times Square, Friday, March. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, walk off Air Force One, Friday, March 29, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Biden is returning from New York after a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Hunter Biden and is wife Melissa and family, arrive with President Biden on Air Force One, Friday, March 29, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President Biden is returning from New York after a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)