Skip to main content

Putin Will Free Jailed US Reporter Held In Russia "For Me": Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he will use his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to get Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich freed from a Russian prison.

The assertion was ridiculed by the campaign of Democratic President Joe Biden, which cited Trump's frequent criticism of the news media as an "enemy of the people."

Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform that the journalist would be freed soon after the Nov. 5 US presidential election where he faces a rematch against Biden.

"Evan Gershkovich, the Reporter from The Wall Street Journal, who is being held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office. He will be HOME, SAFE, AND WITH HIS FAMILY," Trump said.

"Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else, and WE WILL BE PAYING NOTHING!"

Gershkovich was arrested in Russia in March last year on spying charges that he, his paper and the Biden administration have all strongly denied. He has spent more than a year in a Moscow prison, with no date set for a trial.

Trump did not refer to any contacts with Putin or say what grounds he had to believe that the Russian leader would release Gershkovich. The Trump campaign did not return requests for comment.

Asked about the post, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has "naturally not had contacts with Donald Trump."

The Biden campaign said the release of Gershkovich remains an urgent priority, and it accused Trump of using wrongfully imprisoned Americans as political props.

"Donald Trump doesn't give a damn about the innocent Americans unjustly imprisoned by Vladimir Putin," Biden campaign adviser TJ Ducklo said in an email.

"Trump has called journalists 'enemies of the people' and pledged to imprison reporters whose coverage he doesn't like - not all that dissimilar to what's happening right now to Evan Gershkovich in Russia."

Putin said in February that it might be possible to free the reporter in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for murder.

Peskov reiterated previous Kremlin statements that contacts with Washington regarding any exchange of prisoners must be conducted "in complete silence and absolutely discreetly. This is the only way they can be effective".

In December 2022 after months of talks, U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was released in a prisoner swap with Moscow in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Earlier that year, Russia freed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and the U.S. released Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.

During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump expressed admiration for Putin. In 2018, he refused to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies and sparking criticism at home.

Trump has also claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of returning to the White House, though he has not said how he would do this.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/sKFCwQV

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Released 2 American Hostages On "Humanitarian Grounds": Hamas

Gaza's ruler Hamas said Friday its armed wing has released two American hostages, from around 200 captives abducted in attacks by the militant group in Israel on October 7. "In response to Qatari efforts, (Ezzedine) al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons," Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram. The Islamist group did not detail how or when the hostages were released. The Israeli military said earlier Friday that most of those abducted to Gaza were still alive. "The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken... to the Gaza Strip," an army statement said. The military said more than 20 hostages were minors, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60. There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group carried out a deadly assault on Israel, the worst in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gaza's Rafah Border Crossing Area Hit In Military Strike

The area of the Rafah border crossing between the blockaded Gaza Strip and Egypt was hit Monday in a military strike, AFP correspondents said, as hundreds of Palestinians gathered hoping to cross. The area of the shuttered crossing point in Gaza's south had been hit at least three times last week by Israeli air strikes after Gaza-based Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 that triggered all-out war. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/z9CBc7N
Post a Comment
Read more

Sri Lanka Must Achieve Debt Restructuring By September: IMF

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday reaffirmed that Sri Lanka must achieve its debt restructuring process by September, which is also the time for the global lender's formal review of the bailout facility it extended to the cash-strapped nation. On March 20, IMF extended a nearly $3 billion bailout facility to debt-ridden Sri Lanka that would help stabilise the country's economy after it was jolted by a devastating economic crisis last year. In a statement issued on Tuesday at the end of a nearly two weeks staff visit to Colombo to assess the progress made by Sri Lanka since the agreement was reached, the IMF said the two sides had discussed the developments on debt restructuring. "Sri Lanka must achieve debt restructuring by its first review due in September. We also discussed progress on debt restructuring, noting the ongoing discussions with both foreign and domestic creditors," the statement read. Sri Lanka is still struggling to normalise its crisis-hi...
Post a Comment
Read more