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Russia has engaged in negotiations to bring imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich home, with former acting Hostage Affairs envoy Hugh Dugan seeing this as a positive step.
Gershkovich, detained in Moscow on spying charges, awaits trial amid calls for his release.
Kremlin acknowledging the situation and a call for confidentiality in negotiations have emerged.
“It does indicate they’re focused on it, or at least attentive … it’s on their minds. There are hostage cases where the other side says, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about,’ or ‘That’s not up for discussion,’” Dugan said.
“They are speaking and saying something, so there is a pulse,” he added. “To get from A to B, you need to take steps, and this would be a step that would be elemental toward resolution.”
“I want to remind you again of the president’s conversation with the heads of information agencies in St. Petersburg — he confirmed that there are such contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated.
“They go on but should continue to be conducted in complete silence,” Peskov added. “Therefore, no announcements, statements or information on this matter can be provided.”
“The request for confidentiality in negotiation, I think, is to be respected,” Dugan said.
“A basic premise for confidentiality in such negotiations, I think, is wise. If one side is willing to talk and they say that that’s one of their conditions, then that needs to have some acknowledgment,” he added. “We all have our conditions, sometimes they’re mutual, and it’s shown over time that the confidentiality is usually a part of a successful resolution.”
The Wall Street Journal condemned the trial, urging immediate release.
The trial’s closure could be a critical step in his case, though uncertain outcomes loom.
“Evan Gershkovich is facing a false and baseless charge. Russia’s latest move toward a sham trial is, while expected, deeply disappointing and still no less outrageous. Evan has spent 441 days wrongfully detained in a Russian prison for simply doing his job. Evan is a journalist. The Russian regime’s smearing of Evan is repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies,” Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Emma Tucker jointly stated.
“Journalism is not a crime. Evan’s case is an assault on free press,” Latour and Tucker added. “We continue to demand his immediate release. We had hoped to avoid this moment and now expect the US government to redouble efforts to get Evan released.”
“The very, very thin silver lining would be that this puts his case into a process toward a verdict,” Dugan said.
“It may be that they need a verdict in order to start dealing,” Dugan said.
“The fact that this is inching toward a verdict … that’s got to be seen as some type of momentum,” Dugan said.
“The Russian prisoners in the U.S. who’ve been convicted … sitting in detention, they are real prisoners. He has not been given a verdict. He’s not a prisoner. Under their system, yes … he’s being held. In most places in the world, you’re guilty until proven innocent, which is a big lesson for all of us to remember all the time,” Dugan noted.
“We’re innocent until proven guilty here,” he added. “He’s an innocent person.”