00:00I'd like to ask first on Evan Gershkovich and the – he's being charged with espionage,
00:09including working for the CIA and going now on trial. Is there any – what is your reaction?
00:16Is there any credibility to the charges in your understanding? How do you see him playing out?
00:22No, there is absolutely zero credibility to those charges. We have been clear from the start that
00:26Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is
00:30not a crime. The charges against him are false, and the Russian Government knows that they are
00:35false. He should be released immediately. And I can tell you that on behalf of the United States
00:39Government, we will continue to try to work – or we will continue to work to bring home Evan
00:43Gershkovich and Paul Whelan every day. It's something that we are constantly working on
00:46and constantly pursuing. Can I follow up on Evan? Yeah.
00:49Thanks, Matt. Are you concerned at all for his safety as he is transferred from Moscow
00:54to Ekaterinburg and you – Roger Carson said you guys may lose contact with him during that time?
00:59I don't have any specific concerns to mention here, but we are – I will say we are in contact
01:07with Evan. We have been in contact with him. We've had consular visits with him regularly. The last
01:10one we had was in May. We will continue to seek consular access to him. It's something that we
01:17have demanded from the Russian Government and continue to push for. And part of the reason we
01:22do that is so we can regularly check on his safety and his well-being, and that's what we'll continue
01:25to do. And do you see this as any sign either positive or negative for negotiations to secure
01:30his release? In the past, we have seen these negotiations sort of stall until there has
01:34been a trial. So how do you read that? I just don't want to – I don't want to
01:38kind of speculate one way or the other about what the impact of these could be.
01:42We're going to continue to try to pursue his release. We put a substantial offer on the table
01:48to secure the release of Evan and Paul Whelan some months ago. As we said publicly,
01:52we're continuing to work to secure their release. We don't talk about all the details of that
01:55publicly. This has always been the case, but it is one of the Secretary and the President's
01:59highest priorities.
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