U.S. Ambassador Meets Evan Gershkovich, Detained WSJ Reporter, in Russia

The U.S. ambassador to Russia met with Evan Gershkovich, the jailed American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow on Monday, the State Department stated hours after their discuss.
The go to by the ambassador, Lynne Tracy, marked the third time she had met with Mr. Gershkovich since he was detained by the Russian authorities in March.
“Ambassador Tracy said that Evan continues to appear in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” the State Department stated in a written assertion.
American officers have stated that their Russian counterparts are blocking them from getting common consular entry to Mr. Gershkovich, the primary American journalist arrested on an espionage cost in Russia for the reason that finish of the Cold War.
Relations between Washington and Moscow are at their lowest level in a long time following the choice by President Vladimir V. Putin to start a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Analysts say Russian officers underneath Mr. Putin possible detained Mr. Gershkovich in hopes of doing a prisoner swap with the United States.
Russian officers are holding Mr. Gershkovich, 31, on an accusation of spying though he’s a journalist with accreditation from Russia’s Foreign Ministry and regardless of the very fact he was doing reporting on the time of his detention.
Agents from the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., detained Mr. Gershkovich on March 29 whereas he was on a reporting journey in the town of Yekaterinburg in the Urals area.
The Wall Street Journal and Mr. Gershkovich’s relations have denied any accusation that he’s a spy, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated in April that he had been wrongfully detained.
In December 2022, President Biden agreed to launch Viktor Bout, an imprisoned Russian weapons seller, in change for the liberty of Brittney Griner, the American basketball star, almost 10 months after Ms. Griner was detained in Moscow on accusations of drug smuggling and possession. The State Department stated in May 2022 that she had been wrongfully detained.
Russia has stated it would talk about prisoner releases with the United States by a particular channel that Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin established at a gathering in Geneva in 2021. The negotiations to launch of Ms. Griner happened by that channel.
A Russian court docket determined in June to increase Mr. Gershkovich’s detention till not less than Aug. 30 and denied an attraction from his attorneys. The detention was initially imagined to have ended on May 29. Ms. Tracy final met with Mr. Gershkovich in jail on July 3.
Source link