Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved the arrest of a US reporter on espionage charges for the first time since the Cold War, people familiar with the situation said.
The Russian president’s endorsement of the move reflects the growing influence of Kremlin hardliners who push for deepening a confrontation with Washington they view as irreversible, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that are not public.
The detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on March 29 triggered angry denunciations from the US and its allies, marking yet another low in US-Russian ties, which have spiraled since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEY KARPUHIN / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
“This should be a real wake-up call, not just to the US, but the broader West,” said Alina Polyakova, president of the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank in Washington. “It’s signaling that in Putin’s mindset that there’s no going back to a stable and reliable relationship.”
As the war drags into its second year, the Kremlin has increasingly sought to portray it as an existential struggle against a NATO bent on destroying Russia.
Moves including a war crimes-related international arrest warrant against Putin have only deepened the leadership’s sense that there is no room to back down in a conflict that it expects to last for years.
The Russian parliament this week rushed through a sharp toughening of penalties for those who seek to avoid military service.
The changes create a new online system to deliver call-up notices and ban those who ignore them from leaving the country, closing loopholes many had used to avoid the draft.
The measure, expected to be signed into law soon by Putin, has fueled fears that a new mobilization might come later this year.
The Kremlin said there are currently no such plans.
Last year’s call-up of 300,000 reservists triggered the exodus of as many as 1 million Russians.
The initiative to arrest a US reporter on spying charges for the first time in nearly 40 years came from hawks among top officials of Russia’s security services, the people with knowledge of the issue said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was not Putin’s decision, but was “the total prerogative of the special services. They were doing their job.”
Those agencies report directly to the president.
Gershkovich, 31, was detained in Yekaterinburg, about 1400km east of Moscow, by Russian Federal Security Service agents.
Charged with spying, which carries a 20-year prison term, he is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, to which Russia has not granted the US consular access.
The Kremlin said he was caught “red handed,” but has provided no evidence.
The Wall Street Journal has denied the allegations.
The US Department of State has formally determined that Gershkovich has been wrongfully detained by Russia, which opens the way to the US to negotiate on his behalf.
Russia has pushed to include in previous prisoner swaps Kremlin insider Vladislav Klyushin, who was in February found guilty of insider trading and hacking, separate people familiar with the matter said.
He has information relating to the hacking of Democratic Party servers during the 2016 US presidential election, they said.
Last year, Russia and the US conducted two prisoner exchanges, including in December when they swapped US basketball star Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Gershkovich’s family on Tuesday, assuring them that “the government is doing everything in its power to bring him home as quickly as possible,” the family said in a statement.
With the public focus on the case, the US might have no choice but to negotiate, encouraging more such hostage-taking, Polyakova said.
“The Russians are getting far more aggressive and they’ve seen that when you take high-profile US citizens hostage, you get what you want,” she said.
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