The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, demanded this Sunday by telephone to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, the “immediate release” of the American journalist with Russian origins from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia for alleged espionage. To which Lavrov replied that it is “unacceptable” that Washington and the Western media try to give a political nuance to the case of the American journalist.
The State Department reported the call between the two foreign ministers in a statement and did not refer to Gershkovich by name, but rather described him as a “citizen journalist.”
“Secretary Blinken conveyed the grave concern of the United States over the unacceptable detention of a citizen journalist. The secretary called for his immediate release,” the State Department said in a statement.
Lavrov, for his part, “drew Blinken’s attention to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, made in accordance with the law and the international obligations of the Russian Federation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the phone call between them.
In the conversation, Lavrov noted that Gershkovich “was caught red-handed while trying to obtain secret information, collecting data that constitutes a state secret,” and did so “under the guise of journalistic work.” “In light of the established facts of the illegal activities of the American citizen, whose detention was notified to the United States embassy in Moscow in accordance with the established procedure, the court will determine his future fate,” stressed the head of diplomacy. before Blinken, with whom he also addressed “some current issues of a bilateral nature”.
A Moscow court on Thursday ordered Gershkovich two months in pretrial detention after his arrest the same day in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Urals, accused by the Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) of espionage, a crime for which he could be sentenced to 20 years in jail.
The Wall Street Journal has denied the allegations and demanded the immediate release of its journalist, who worked in the newspaper’s Moscow office, while the White House has condemned his detention and accused Russia of targeting US citizens.
According to the State Department, Blinken took advantage of the phone call with Lavrov to also demand the “immediate release” of Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia since 2018. Whelan, 53, was detained on December 28, 2018 by Federal Service agents Security (FSB, former KGB) in a Moscow hotel for alleged “espionage activities” in favor of the United States.
The convicted man has denied all the accusations and has described the case as “political kidnapping”, while his family has assured that he only traveled to Moscow to attend a wedding.
Moscow and Washington carried out in December 2022 one of the most notorious prisoner swaps in recent years by exchanging basketball player Brittney Griner, convicted of cannabis possession, for the arms dealer known as the “merchant of death” , VÃktor But, who was serving 25 years in prison in the United States. The United States unsuccessfully tried to include Whelan in that prisoner exchange, without success.
Griner and his wife Cherelle expressed solidarity with Gershkovich’s family on Instagram last night, saying their hearts are “full of concern” for him. In addition, they urged US President Joe Biden to use “every tool” at his disposal to secure his release.
