President Joe Biden said Russia will pay for its “appalling attempts” to use Americans as bargaining chips in a statement marking a year since Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s arrest.
The 32-year-old became the first US journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 29 last year.
“As I have told Evan’s parents, I will never give up hope either. We will continue working every day to secure his release,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House that called the journalist’s detention “wholly unjust and illegal.”
“We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips,” Biden added.
Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address
POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The reporter, the Journal and the U.S. government all deny he is a spy. The FSB, the …
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