Brittney Griner – the basketball star whom Russia detained for 10 months last year – says America must do “everything in our power” to bring home Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after his arrest last week in Russia on dubious espionage charges.
In a Saturday night Instagram post, Griner and her wife, Cherelle, said their “hearts are filled with great concern” for the 31-year-old reporter and his family.
“Every American who is taken is ours to fight for and every American returned is a win for us all,” the couple wrote, before saying the Biden administration should use “every tool possible to bring Evan and all wrongfully detained Americans home.”
On Friday, President Joe Biden urged Russia to release Gershkovich.
“Let him go,” the president told White House reporters in response to questions about what hliis message to Russia would be.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was taken into Russian security custody on Thursday and accused of spying. APGershkovich’s arrest likely hits close to home for Griner – she spent much of 2022 in Russian custody after being arrested at an airport near Moscow for allegedly having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal there.
She was exchanged in December for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death.”
The son of Soviet immigrants, Gershkovich moved to Russia in 2017 for his first reporting gig at the Moscow Times, according to the New York Times. He was hired by the Journal in January 2022 as a Moscow-based correspondent, the paper said.
But last Thursday, Russia’s Federal Security Service arrested Gershkovich and accused him of trying to secure classified information.
President Biden urged Russia to release Gershkovich, the first American correspondent to be detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. AFP via Getty ImagesThe Journal has vehemently denied the charges and demanded his release. He’s the first American correspondent detained on such accusations since the Cold War.
More than 30 news organizations and advocates for press freedom have also written Russia’s US ambassador to outline concerns that the Eastern European nation is informally criminalizing internal reporting.
In their statement, the Griners added they were grateful to the Biden team for his efforts to rescue those held abroad, noting the recent release of Jeff Woodke, who was kidnapped in Niger more than six years ago, and Paul Rusesabagina, a U.S. legal resident imprisoned in Rwanda.
