Biden says he’s working to secure release of Wall Street Journal reporter held for a year in Russia

NEW YORK (AP) — On the one-year anniversary of the Russian detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is working every day to secure his release.

“Journalism is not a crime, and Evan went to Russia to do his job as a reporter — risking his safety to shine the light of truth on Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine,” Biden said in a statement Friday.

Biden told reporters later Friday that he held Gershkovich in high regard.

“I admire the hell out of him,” Biden said before he traveled from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to the Camp David presidential retreat. “We’re not giving up.”

Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, alleges he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation, which he, the Journal and the U.S. government deny. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.

On Friday, there was a giant blank space on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, with an image at the top of the page of Gershkovich in the newspaper’s signature pencil drawing and a headline that read: “His Story Should be Here.”

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