In an interview with US TV host Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Mr Putin said that Russian and US special services were discussing the case of reporter Evan Gershkovich and had made some progress.

Gershkovich was arrested by Russian security services on March 29, 2023, in the city of Yekaterinburg for investigation into the alleged collection of defense secrets of the country. Russia later prosecuted Gershkovich for espionage and has been holding the 33-year-old American journalist in custody since then, awaiting trial.

In an interview with journalist Carlson, President Putin suggested that in exchange for Gershkovich's release, Moscow wants Germany to release Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of murdering a Chechen activist in Berlin in 2019. However, Mr. Putin did not mention Krasikov by name, but referred to a person who "out of patriotic feelings, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals."

“There have been many successful examples of these negotiations. Perhaps this one will be successful too, but we must come to an agreement,” Putin said through an interpreter.

"We are ready to resolve the issue but there are certain terms that are being discussed through special channels. I believe that an agreement can be reached," President Putin said, stressing that Russia's partners need to take what he called reciprocal steps.

Russia and the US have agreed to high-profile prisoner swaps in the past - most recently in December 2022 when Moscow traded Brittney Griner - an American basketball star convicted of drug crimes in Russia - for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, is a Russian-American. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey (USA) and worked for the New York Times from 2016 to 2017 before returning to Russia in late 2017 and joining the English-language Moscow Times.

In 2022, Gershkovich joined the London bureau of the Wall Street Journal (USA) and moved to the UK but returned to Russia regularly to report. Gershkovich's arrest marked the first time a reporter working for an American news organization has been arrested for spying in Russia since the Cold War.

Nguyen Khanh