“Let him go! This is Joe Biden’s first public reaction to the arrest of 31-year-old Russian-speaking American reporter Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg, Russia. “Expelling the Russian ambassador from the United States, as well as the Russian journalists working there, would be the least we could do”, affirms for his part the Wall Street Journal, his employer, in an editorial published overnight from Thursday to Friday.
“The timing of the arrest looks like a calculated provocation to embarrass the United States and intimidate the foreign press still working in Russia,” the newspaper added. In a letter to staff on Friday evening, the editor of the “WSJ” assured that everything would be done to “ensure the release of Evan” and thanked those who have mobilized in this direction in recent days.
‘No reason’ to expel diplomats, says Moscow
“Your safety is what matters most to me, and we will continue to protect it, regardless of where you are reporting from,” she added. “Evan is a member of the free press who, until his arrest, was doing his job as a journalist. Any suggestion to the contrary is false,” Emma Tucker wrote again, calling Russia’s actions “totally unjustified.”
The Kremlin on Thursday warned Washington against any form of reprisals targeting Russian media working in the United States after the arrest of the American journalist caught, according to Moscow, “in the act” of spying. “Regarding the demand for the expulsion of all Russian journalists, the newspaper can say this, but this should not happen. There is simply no reason for that,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. He added that the American journalist “was caught in the act (of espionage)” and that “the situation is clear”.