Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that his government is prepared to consider freed hostage Evan Gershkovich’s request to interview President Vladimir Putin.
“If such a request is received, we will consider it. If the president thinks it necessary to give an interview to foreign media outlets, he will do so,” Peskov said.
Gershkovich, 32, is a Wall Street Journal reporter whom the Russian government kidnapped while he was on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023. He was held without charges for more than a year before the Putin regime absurdly put him on trial as a CIA spy in July.
Gershkovich’s secret trial was pushed through with blinding speed, and he was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony. He was freed on Thursday in a prisoner swap deal between Russia and the United States.
During his last days as a prisoner, Gershkovich was instructed to complete an official request for clemency from Putin. Russia always convicts its hostages in secret trials before using them as bargaining chips, so requesting “clemency” for his non-existent “crimes” was a bit of theater Gershkovich had to endure to get out of jail.
The clemency form concluded with an area prisoners normally leave blank. Gershkovich instead used the space to ask Putin to sit for a one-on-one interview with him.
Peskov said on Friday that the Kremlin receives many requests from foreign reporters to interview Putin, and Gershkovich’s unorthodox request would be considered along with the others.
Gershkovich arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday night along with two other Americans freed in the prisoner swap deal.
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