Mon Sep 09 14:07:33 UTC 2024: ## Kremlin Rejects Interview Request From Released Wall Street Journal Reporter
**Moscow, Russia** – The Kremlin has announced it will not grant an interview to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was released by Russia this summer in a prisoner swap. Gershkovich, who spent over 16 months in Russian detention on espionage charges, had requested an interview with President Vladimir Putin while seeking a presidential pardon.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the request, stating that there is no current occasion for an interview with foreign media, particularly a specific journalist like Gershkovich. This follows a pattern of the Kremlin limiting access to President Putin, who has only granted one interview to a Western journalist in recent times – to controversial US talk show host Tucker Carlson in February.
Gershkovich, a respected Moscow correspondent, was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg. He was one of 16 people freed by Russia in August’s prisoner swap with the West.
The Kremlin has consistently maintained that the espionage charges against Gershkovich were legitimate, a claim vehemently denied by the journalist, his employer, and the White House.
First Piper 