MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he had nothing to add to the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the prisoner swap negotiations with the United States.

When asked to comment on the statement by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller who said that the first step for the resumption of talks between Moscow and Washington could be the release of Americans detained in Russia, Peskov said: "Yesterday the president actually answered this question, here I have nothing to add to what the president said yesterday at the press conference."

On December 14, the Russian president said that Russia was not refusing the exchange, but "these arrangements should be mutually acceptable and should suit both sides." According to Putin, contacts with the United States on this issue are underway. At the same time, the president pointed out that "humanitarian considerations should certainly underlie these decisions."

In March 2023, Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in Russia on espionage charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison, but has not pleaded guilty. Other Americans in Russian custody include Paul Whelan, who holds US, Canadian and Irish citizenship, as well as UK citizenship, was detained while conducting a spy raid on December 28, 2018, by Russian FSB officers in a room of the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. The Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty and sentenced him to 16 years in a strict regime colony.