Vladimir Putin has claimed that jailed American reporter Evan Gershkovich is a spy caught red-handed with classified information.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 last year and charged with espionage, the first American journalist to be arrested for alleged espionage since the Cold War.
The Russian president reiterated in a controversial two-hour interview with Tucker Carlson that he was open to a deal to send him home.
Putin has often insisted that the wrongly imprisoned writer would only be released as part of a trade, and gave no new information during the interview.
Gershkovich was reporting for the Wall Street Journal, with press credentials, when he was captured by the Federal Security Service in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Evan Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 last year and charged with espionage, the first American journalist to be arrested for alleged espionage since the Cold War
Putin insisted that Gershkovich was a spy, despite Carlson saying he was “obviously not a spy, he’s a child… he’s not a super spy and everyone knows that.”
“You know, you can give different interpretations to what a spy is. But there are certain things provided for by the law,” Putin said.
‘If someone obtains secret information and does so in a conspiratorial manner, this qualifies as espionage.
‘And that’s exactly what he did. He received classified, confidential information, and he did it in secret.”
Putin left open the possibility that Gershkovich received the material ‘out of carelessness’, but that his actions did indeed ‘qualify’ as espionage.
“This fact has been proven when he was caught red-handed upon receiving this information,” he alleged.
“If it had been a far-fetched excuse, a fabrication, something that had not been proven, it would have been a different story.
‘But he was caught red-handed when he secretly obtained confidential information. What is it?’
Evan Gershkovich, 32, stands in a closed room for defendants during a court hearing in Moscow on November 28, when his pre-trial detention was extended by two months
The Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich’s family and the White House repeatedly said he was not a spy and that he was distracted while doing his job as a reporter.
President Joe Biden promised to bring him home, and the State Department said he had been wrongfully detained by Russian authorities.
Gershkovich is imprisoned in the infamous Lefortovo prison and spends 90 percent of his day cut off from the world in a small cell.
A Russian court extended his pre-trial detention for another two months on November 28, and it is unclear when he will stand trial.
Putin simply refused to release Gershkovich when Carlson asked. He said Russia “has made so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think they are no longer available.”
However, he indicated that the wrongfully imprisoned reporter could “in theory” be exchanged for a captured Russian “if our partners take reciprocal steps.”
‘Special services are in contact with each other. They talk about the issue at hand. There is no taboo to resolve this issue,” he said.
;We are willing to resolve it, but certain conditions will be discussed through special service channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.”