US President Joe Biden reiterated his commitment to securing the release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich during his State of the Union address on Thursday night. Evan Gershkovich has been imprisoned in Russia for nearly a year on espionage charges that are widely believed to be politically motivated and unfounded.

“We will also work around the clock to bring Evan and Paul home as Americans unjustly detained by the Russians,” Biden said. Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, He was also imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, which were deemed baseless.

Gershkovich’s parents attended the State of the Union address as guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Our Russian correspondent wall street journalGershkovich was detained in March 2023 and has since been held in pretrial detention on espionage charges, a charge that he, his employer and the U.S. government all strongly deny. If convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

“Evan is an American and he is doing his job as a journalist. Most importantly, he is our beloved son and brother and we want him to come home.” According to reports, Gershkovic’s parent Ella Mir Mann and Mikhail Gershkovych recently said. Magazine.

March 29 will mark the first anniversary of Gershkovich’s imprisonment.

As a grim anniversary approaches, Paul Beckett is an assistant editor at The New York Times. Magazine He, who led the newspaper’s campaign for Gershkovic’s release, said he hoped it would be the final milestone in his colleague’s prison sentence.

“We have been doing everything we can all year to highlight Evan’s case. This is another reminder that we can never do enough,” Beckett told VOA.

Beckett said he hoped Gershkovich’s parents would attend the speech as guests of Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, to send the message that press freedom is a bipartisan issue.

“We greatly appreciate the efforts of Speaker Johnson and President Biden to highlight the Evan case and press freedom more broadly. This is a bipartisan issue,” Beckett said. “I think it just shows that press freedom is a top priority for both parties.”

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an email from VOA seeking comment.

“By hosting Evan’s parents, Congress will draw attention to the unjust detention of their son,” Johnson said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “The United States must always support press freedom around the world, especially in places like Russia where it is under attack . The government must bring Evan home.”

The U.S. State Department also announced that Gershkovich was wrongly detained. The Russian government has so far not released any evidence to support its charges against the 32-year-old journalist. Gershkovich was recognized by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

In a February interview with former TV talk show host Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin further emphasized false espionage accusations about Gershkovich and said the Russian government would trade him for the current A Russian assassin imprisoned in Germany.

But Biden’s speech made no mention of the second American journalist currently imprisoned in Russia: Alsu Kurmasheva, a co-director of VOA sister agency Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RL) Editor of the Tatar-Bashkir group.

Kurmasheva is a U.S.-Russian dual national living in Prague who traveled to Russia in May 2023 due to a family emergency. When she tried to leave the country in June, her passport was confiscated.

She was detained in October 2023 for failing to register as a so-called “foreign agent” while awaiting the return of her passport. Authorities later added additional charges of spreading disinformation about the Russian military.

Kumasheva and her employer deny the charges against her. If convicted, she faces a combined sentence of 15 years in prison.

At an event in Washington on Thursday, Kurmasheva’s husband Pavel Butorin stressed the poor conditions in which his wife was being held in pretrial detention in the southern Russian city of Kazan.

“Her children have been without their mother for more than nine months. This is an extremely difficult period for our family,” Butorin said via video call from Prague.

“We understand what kind of regime we are dealing with here. But we remain hopeful. We have no choice. We want Arsu back,” Butorin added.