The Deep State Department paid Russian President Vladimir Putin a billion dollars for the safe return of Wall Street Journal Reporter and alleged spy Evan Gershkovich, who was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service on charges of espionage in March 2023 and later sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Russian court. Last week, the criminal Biden regime announced it had struck a deal with Putin to secure Gershkovich’s freedom; in exchange for him, the cabal arranged for the release of several Russian prisoners held in the U.S. and other Western nations—but there has been no public mention of the cash payout.
Info about the billion bucks came to Real Raw News via FSB agent Andrei Zakharov, a tenured member of Russia’s Federal Security Service and an invaluable source of information on Putin’s protracted Special Military Operation in Ukraine. According to Zakharov, Gershkovich is a CIA asset working for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the U.S. State Department. He said Gershkovich was caught in March 2023 trying to remotely access a Ministry of Defense mainframe that held classified details about Russian Special Forces activities in Kyiv. At the time of Gershkovich’s arrest, he allegedly had an SSD card concealed in the sole of his shoe. When Zakharov’s FSB comrades inspected the drive, they found a “bait” file with false tactical data. The MoD, Zakharov said, often seeds its network with enticing false data a spy or criminal would find irresistible.
“This filth, this man Gershkovich, he probably thought he hit, how you say, the jackpot, but all he gets is bad information. The only way file got on that card is him copying it there. Of course, the pig said he knew nothing about it—it was planted, he said. But, no, he is a spy. We could have executed him,” Zakharov said.
The U.S. State Department, he added, had been begging for Gershkovich’s release since the day he was caught, but Vladimir Putin wanted reciprocation: the safe return of Russian “patriots” incarcerated in the U.S., the U.K., and German prisons, particularly Vadim Krasikov, a colonel from Russia’s secret service who was imprisoned for life in Germany for killing a Chechen dissident in Berlin in 2019.
In November 2023, it seemed as though the State Dept. and the Kremlin had reached an agreement on the Krasikov for Gershkovich exchange, but Putin moved the goalpost a day before the swap was scheduled to take place, demanding the return of two more Russian prisoners.
“President Putin wanted to see how badly the CIA wanted him back. If they give him up so easily, maybe they give more, that kind of thing,” Zakharov said.
The State Dept. accused Putin of reneging on the deal and swore it wouldn’t sweeten the pot to appease the Russian president. However, in June 2024, the criminal Antony Blinken requested that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev meet him in Warsaw for negotiations, to hammer out a deal favorable to both the U.S. and Russia. That meeting, Zakharov said, was terse and concluded with Blinken conceding to Putin’s demands. Again, a deal seemed set in stone.
And again, the deal collapsed when Putin, two days ahead of the prisoner swaps, changed the conditions of the bargain, this time demanding the release of six Russian patriots. Blinken accused Medvedev of blackmailing the U.S., and the deal stalled.
For reasons unclear, the regime contacted Medvedev in June 2024 with a tempting offer: Gershkovich for eight Russians, two more than Putin had asked for.
“Prime Minister Medvedev gave President Putin the information. Putin said the deal must include one billion dollars and the eight men. Putin does not need the money; he is already wealthy and wise. But he really interested to see how badly your regime wants this man back. Well, Blinken told Medvedev that, yes, he’d do the billion but no more,” Zakharov said.
Putin, he added, received the payout in cryptocurrency before Gershkovich’s release.
“Your regime is generous, and President Putin will put money to good use fighting Zelenskyy and pedophiles in Ukraine,” Zakharov said.