WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich appeals Russian detention extension

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appealed the extension of his pretrial detention after Moscow pushed back the date he was scheduled to be held by three months.

Gershkovich’s attorney’s appealed the extension after it was pushed from Aug. 30 to November on Thursday, eight months after he was detained on espionage charges in March during a work trip to Yekaterinburg, the Journal reported.

An attempt to appeal his current detention was already denied earlier this summer after Gershkovich, 31, became the first American journalist detained on espionage charges since the Soviet Union era, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.

Both Gershkovich and the Journal have denied the spying allegations, while the US government has declared the reporter wrongfully detained.

President Joe Biden also suggested his interest in a prisoner swap last month during a press conference with the Finnish president in Helsinki.

“I’m serious about a prisoner exchange,” Biden told reporters.

“I’m serious about doing all we can to free Americans who are being illegally held in Russia — or anywhere else for that matter — and that process is underway,” he continued.