WSJ demands that US expel Russian ambassador and journalists, Kremlin responds

In response to the arrest of journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia, The Wall Street Journal has stated it expects the expulsion of the Russian ambassador and journalists from the United States, but the Kremlin called this demand baseless.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Meduza  (a Russian outlet based in Latvia), with reference to Interfax

Quote WSJ: "Russia’s arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich escalates the Kremlin’s habit of taking Americans hostage, and it’s more evidence that Russia is divorcing itself from the community of civilised nations.

President Vladimir Putin is now responsible for Mr. Gershkovich's health and safety, and the Biden Administration has an obligation to press for his release. (...)

Thuggish leaders keep doing thuggish things if they think they will pay no price. The Biden Administration will have to consider diplomatic and political escalation.

Expelling Russia's ambassador to the U.S., as well as all Russian journalists working here, would be the minimum to expect. The U.S. government’s first duty is to protect its citizens, and too many governments now believe they can arrest and imprison Americans with impunity."

Details: The Wall Street Journal notes that Gershkovich was arrested Wednesday in the city of Yekaterinburg, where he was preparing a report, and neither the Journal nor the US government were allowed to contact him until Thursday evening.

The WSJ denies accusations of espionage by the FSB. Gershkovich has been working in Russia for many years and "The FSB could have expelled him long ago if it really believed he was a spy," the publication's column says. Gershkovich's arrest came days after he described the decline of the Russian economy, the WSJ noted.

As several people who Gershkovich met with in Yekaterinburg told BBC Russian Service, the journalist was interested in recruitment in the Wagner Private Military Company and their attitude to the war in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that Gershkovich’s arrest may be Russia's response to charges brought in the United States against Russian citizen Sergei Cherkasov, a Russian agent who committed fraudulent activities, since "Putin often takes hostages with a goal of exchanging them later for Russians who've committed crimes in the U.S."

The WSJ points out that Gershkovich’s arrest on espionage charges is the first charge against an American journalist in Russia since the arrest of Nikolai Danilov [Nicolas Daniloff – ed.] in 1986, in the final stages of the Cold War.

Danilov was then released, and the US allowed an employee of the Soviet mission to the UN to leave the country after his arrest.

WSJ also recalls a number of recent exchanges between the US and the Russian Federation.

For his part, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman of the President of Russia, called the proposal to expel Russian journalists from the United States in response to the arrest of Evan Gershkovich groundless.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman said that foreign journalists accredited in the Russian Federation "do not face any restrictions and work perfectly", but in the case of Gershkovich "it is an activity under the guise of journalism, espionage activity in essence".

Peskov stated that "since the journalist was taken red-handed, the situation here is obvious", and therefore "there is no reason to demand the expulsion of all Russian journalists".

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