John Herbst, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said the Biden administration must to more to acknowledge Russia as an adversary on the one-year anniversary of journalist Evan Gershkovich’s detention.
Herbst joined NewsNation Friday, where he argued the U.S. should show Russia that it is not gaining an upper hand by holding high-profile Americans in custody.
“We should make it clear to them that this is not the case and that starts by the United States recognizing that Russia is our adversary,” he said. “They call us their principal adversary, but our policy broadly does not reflect that.”
He argued that the U.S. needs to design a policy over time that will make it less likely that the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin will “play games like this in the future.”
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia for a year after being accused of being a spy. Herbst called it a “great miscarriage of justice” and a “tragedy.”
But he acknowledged that there is “not that much we can do” right now in the short-term to change the circumstances surrounding his arrest. Russian officials said Thursday that they would consider any prisoner swaps in “silence.”
President Biden has long called for Gershkovich to be released. He released a statement Friday reupping vow to do what he can to bring the journalist home, saying “journalism is not a crime” and that he will “never give up hope.”
In a rare joint statement, congressional leaders also criticized the Russian government for the reporter’s imprisonment. The anniversary of Gershkovich’s detainment comes just days after a Moscow court extended his pretrial detention until June 30.
Still, Herbst argued that not enough is being done, saying that when an American is a prisoner abroad, there is a “political need for the White House to act.”
“It’s more likely we’ll continue to play this game if we don’t identify clearly that Putin’s Russia is an enemy of the United States,” he said.
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