Fate of WSJ’s Gershkovich will be resolved “in silence,” says Kremlin

Evan Gershkovich

A Kremlin spokesman said that the fate of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, currently detained in a Russian prison, could only be resolved “in silence,” reports Gareth Vipers of The Journal.

Vipers reports, “Dmitry Peskov was asked to comment on news that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken by phone earlier this week with Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine held in Russia since 2018.

“‘I want to recall the words of President Putin in his recent interview that these matters love silence, and they can only be resolved in silence,’ Peskov said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“‘Therefore, in our interests, in the interests of the American side, in the interests of those involved, it is better that this is all decided in silence,’ he added.

“Whelan was convicted on espionage charges that he, his family and the U.S. government deny, after a secret trial in 2020, and has since been the subject of prisoner-swap talks between Russia and the U.S. The U.S. has designated Whelan as wrongfully detained, a status that commits the U.S. to work for his release.

“Russia has also detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich since March 2023 on an espionage allegation that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.