US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Russian FM Sergey Lavrov to call for the release of Evan Gershkovich, the State Department said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a telephone conversation with Russian Secretary of State Sergey Lavrov on Sunday.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it had arrested Gershkovich and charged him with collecting state secret information about a Russian defense company.
The Wall Street Journal has denied that Gershkovich was spying. The White House called the espionage charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, “ridiculous”.
“Secretary Blinken expressed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of an American journalist. The secretary called for his immediate release,” the US State Department said in a statement that did not name Gershkovich.
A US official, speaking to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said the statement did indeed refer to Gershkovich.
Under U.S. law, the State Department is generally prohibited from speaking about a U.S. citizen unless he or she has signed a privacy statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov told Blinken it was unacceptable for Washington to politicize the matter, adding that Gershkovich’s fate would be decided by a court. He reiterated Russia’s claim, for which it has provided no evidence, that the journalist was “caught in the act” last week.
“Blinken’s attention was drawn to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, taken in accordance with the law and international obligations of the Russian Federation,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“It was stressed that it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the Western media to stir up commotion with the clear intention of politically coloring this case,” the ministry added, saying Blinken initiated the conversation.
Direct talks between Blinken and Lavrov have been rare since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The two spoke face-to-face for the first time since the invasion on the sidelines of a wider gathering in New Delhi on March 2.
Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker denounced Gershkovich’s arrest and Russian allegations about the reporter, but said she was reassured that Blinken and Lavrov were speaking.
“It is a complete disgrace that he was arrested in this way… what the Russian authorities are saying is utter nonsense,” she told the CBS News program Face the Nation.
At a closed hearing on Thursday, Gershkovich was remanded in custody in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison until May 29.
Many Western and some Russian analysts suggested the arrest was a move by Moscow to secure a bargaining chip with Washington, four months after a high-profile prisoner swap that saw it swap American basketball star Brittney Griner for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner has urged the administration of US President Joe Biden to use “all possible means” to free Gershkovich.
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