- President Putin suggested a prisoner swap deal for detained American journalist, Evan Gershkovich.
- The trade seemingly involves Russian assassin, Vadim Krasikov, who is serving life in Germany.
- Previous attempts by the US to negotiate Gershkovich’s release have been unsuccessful.
President Vladimir Putin said he’s open to making a deal for the release of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in a Moscow prison.
“We do not rule out that we can do that,” Putin said during a controversial two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“We are willing to solve it. But there are certain terms being discussed via special services channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.”
The Russian leader also hinted at what the release could cost: the freedom of a Russian assassin who is serving a life sentence in Germany.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested while on an assignment in Yekaterinburg in March 2023. He was accused of espionage — a claim his family, the Journal, and the US government have strongly denied.
During his interview with Carlson, Putin repeatedly pushed the unverifiable claim that Gershkovich, who has not yet been tried, had received classified information.
Carlson asked Putin if he would be willing to release the reporter, adding: “We’ll bring him back to the United States.”
“He was caught red-handed when he was secretly getting classified information,” Putin said of Gershkovich, but hinted that Russia could release the journalist as part of a prisoner exchange.
Putin did not name who Russia wanted in exchange for Gershkovich, but went on to mention “a person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals” during “the events in the Caucasus.”
BBC News reported that Putin was “almost certainly” referencing Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who is serving life in a Berlin prison after killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvil, a Georgian military officer of Chechen descent.
Krasikov shot Khangoshvil in a children’s playground in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park in 2019. Before his death, the military officer had been included on a list of Russia’s 19 most wanted terrorists after he allegedly led a raid by Chechens in 2004, killing several security officials, The Telegraph reported.
Putin’s apparent willingness to negotiate Gershkovich’s release matters — it comes after several failed attempts from The White House.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in July that the government was “prepared to do hard things” to bring Gershkovich home, BBC News reported.
He said that while talks with Russia were ongoing, there was no “clear pathway to a resolution.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported that the US government previously offered to exchange “a large number” of Russians detained for espionage charges for Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former US marine who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia for spying charges, which the US government said has no merit.
The offer wasn’t accepted, two unnamed sources told the publication in December.
It’s not the first time Krasikovil has been mentioned during talks of an exchange. The Telegraph reported in September that the Kremlin had brought up the Russian assassin during negotiations with Western officials about Gershkovich and Whelan.
Speaking to local media after the interview aired, a spokesperson for the president refused to elaborate on his comments about Gershkovich.
“I leave it without an answer. The president said it very clearly, and he said what he wanted to say after the question about Gershkovich was asked,” Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said, according to the state-owned agency RIA Novosti.
