Donald Trump has said that Valdimir Putin will release Evan Gershkovich “immediately” after the presidential election in November, brazenly claiming that the Russian president will “do that for me” but “not anyone else”.
Mr Gershkovich, 32, is a reporter at the Wall Street Journal covering Russia, who was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on espionage charges in March last year. He has spent well over a year in a Moscow prison, with no date set for a trial. Mr Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal and the US government all strenuously deny the charges and any wrongdoing by Mr Gershkovich.
