Tucker Carlson Asks Putin If He Can Take Jailed American Journalist Back to the U.S.: ‘The Guy’s Obviously Not a Spy’

Tucker Carlson asked Russian President Vladimir Putin whether he could take jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich back to the United States with him on Thursday, telling Putin, “The guy’s obviously not a spy.”

At the end of his controversial two-hour interview, Carlson said, “I just gotta ask you one last question, and that’s about someone who is very famous in the United States, probably not here. Evan Gershkovich, who’s the Wall Street Journal reporter.”

Carlson continued:

He’s 32 and he’s been in prison for almost a year. This is a huge story in the United States and I just want to ask you directly, without getting into the details of it or your version of what happened, if, as a sign of your decency, you would be willing to release him to us and we’ll bring him back to the United States.

Putin sighed and replied, “We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them. We have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner. However, in theory, we can say that we do not rule out that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.”

The Russian president explained:

When I talk about the partners, I first of all refer to special services. Special services are in contact with one another. They are talking about the matter in question. There is no taboo to settle this issue. We are willing to solve it but there are certain terms being discussed via special services channels. I believe an agreement can be reached.

Carlson responded:

I mean this stuff has happened for obviously centuries, one country catches another spy within its borders, it trades it for one of its own intel guys in another country. I think what makes – and it’s not my business – but what makes this different is the guy’s obviously not a spy. He’s a kid, and maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he’s not a super spy and everybody knows that, and he’s being held hostage in exchange, which is true. With respect it’s true, and everyone knows it’s true, so maybe he’s in a different category. Maybe it’s not fair to ask for, you know, somebody else in exchange for letting him out. Maybe it degrades Russia to do that.

Putin dismissed Carlson’s suggestion that Gershkovich was not a spy, remarking, “You know, you can give different interpretations to what constitutes a spy, but there are certain things provided by law. If a person gets secret information and does that in conspiratorial manner, then this is qualified as espionage, and that is exactly what he was doing.”

While Putin insisted that Gershkovich is “not just a journalist,” he said, “I do not rule out that the person you refer to, Mr. Gershkovich, may return to his motherland.”

Putin continued:

At the end of the day, it does not make any sense to keep him in prison in Russia. We want the U.S. special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing. We are ready to talk. Moreover, the talks are underway and there have been many successful examples of these talks crowned with success. Probably this is going to be crowned with success as well. But we have to come to an agreement.

“I hope you let him out,” said Carlson, to which Putin responded, “I also want him to return to his homeland at last. I’m absolutely sincere. But let me say once again, the dialog continues.”

Watch above via Tucker Carlson Network.

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