Russia Says Its Awaiting US Response on Prisoner Swap

Facts

• Days before the trial of the jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was set to commence in Russia, the country's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told state media Wednesday that 'the ball is in the court of the United States,' adding that, 'we are waiting for their response to the ideas that were presented to them.'¹
• 'I understand that, perhaps, something in these ideas does not suit the Americans,' Ryabkov added. 'That's their problem. We consider our approaches to be fully justified, sensible, balanced. We expect that this is how they will view them.'¹
• Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to comment on Ryabkov's remarks but added that the 'overriding goal' of his department is to bring Gershkovich home — now detained in Russia for over a year — as well as to return Paul Whelan, the former US Marine jailed in Russia since 2018.²
• Ryabkov's remarks come after the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in Russia's Yekaterinburg region announced earlier this week that Gershkovich's closed-door trial will commence on June 26. Gershkovich is accused of violating Article 276 of the Russian criminal code on espionage and faces 20 years imprisonment if convicted.³
• The court in Yekaterinburg, the region where Gershgovich was arrested, lies roughly 870 miles from the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, where the 32-year-old reporter is being held. According to Russian prosecutors, he's accused of 'gathering secret information' about a Russian military site on behalf of the CIA.⁴
• Meanwhile, the US insists he's a journalist who's wrongfully detained. In a press conference last week, Miller, the State Department spokesman, said there was 'zero credibility' to the Russian charges.⁵

Sources: ¹Barrons, ²The Wall Street Journal, ³TASS, ⁴NBC and ⁵State.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by NBC. As the US has said from the start, Evan Gershkovich is a journalist who has been wrongfully detained by Putin and his regime. The charges against him are a fiction and any court proceedings he undergoes will be a show trial. Nonetheless, the overriding duty of the US is to get him back safely, and that includes conversations with Russia.
• Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by TASS. Evan Gershkovich was caught red-handed trying to steal Russian military secrets. Nonetheless, as Russia has said from the beginning, a prisoner swap can be arranged as long as those conversations are discreet and in the spirit of reciprocity. Such discussions are underway. But no more on the matter can be stated other than that.

Predictions