Subject: Evan Gershkovich
He is a WSJ reporter detained by Russia's Federal Security Service on charges of espionage in March 2023, marking the first time an American journalist had been arrested on charges of spying in Russia since the Cold War.

A recent Russian court decision denied his appeal of pretrial detention ensuring he will remain behind bars for the foreseeable future. Asked about what the Biden Admin is doing to gain his release, a spokesman said they could not go into details but they blamed the delay on the Iranians for recently raising the price of a hostage to $1.2B. The spokesman said it takes a while to raise that amount money but just this week we provided the Russians with an F-35 as a gesture of good faith.