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Trump claims he can only secure Evan Gershkovich’s release from Russia if he is re-elected.
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The WSJ reporter has been imprisoned in Russia since March last year on disputed espionage charges.
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The Kremlin denies any contact with Trump on the matter.
Donald Trump claimed that only he could convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to release jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter held by Russia, will be released almost immediately after the election, but certainly before I take office.”
“He will be HOME, SAFE AND WITH HIS FAMILY.”
“Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, will do that for me, but for no one else and WE PAY NOTHING!”
But when asked about the former Republican president’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitrii Peskov said: “Putin obviously has no contacts with Donald Trump,” Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.
“As for communications on the issue of persons in custody and convicts, we can say once again what we have said repeatedly: that these talks must be conducted in complete silence and in an absolutely secret manner,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
“This is the only way to make them effective.”
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Russia last March on espionage charges that he, his newspaper and the Biden administration have all strongly denied.
He has spent over a year in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, and no date has yet been set for his trial.
Gershkovich appealed his arrest in April, but the judge denied it. The court also rejected an offer from Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, to post a bond of 50,000,000 rubles ($600,000).
“Evan is being wrongfully detained and the espionage allegations against him are false,” leaders of The Journal and Dow Jones said in a statement. “We demand his immediate release and will do everything in our power to secure his release.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously said the US was “intensely engaged with the Russians” for Gershkovich’s release, although he warned there was “no clear path forward”.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson in February, Putin said he believed an agreement could be reached, though he repeated Russia’s claim that Gershkovich was carrying out espionage.
There have been other prisoner swaps between Russia and the US in recent years, including a deal for basketball stars Brittney Griner in 2022 in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
This is not the first time Trump has claimed that Russia would release Gershkovich for him. In an interview with Time Magazine, Trump, who has consistently said he and Putin “get along very well,” said Gershkovich “should be released and he will be released.”
“I don’t know if he will be released under Biden,” Trump said.
During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump expressed his admiration for Putin. In 2018, the former president declined to accuse the Russian leader of meddling in the 2016 US election, which contradicted US intelligence findings at the time.
Trump has also made bold claims that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of returning to the White House, although he has not said how he would do so.
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