Given the Russian opinion of Blinken and the state of our relations with Moscow, this list of demands will. of course, play well in U.S. politics but seems more likely to raise Mr. Gershkovich's value as a pawn in the nearly nonexistent US-Russian relationship and to raise the Russian price for exchanging him than to achieve his release.
Blinken Calls on Russian Counterpart to Release Evan Gershkovich
U.S. Secretary of State tells Sergei Lavrov that the continued detention of the correspondent is unacceptable
WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed his Russian counterpart for the release of a recently detained Wall Street Journal reporter in a phone call Sunday, the State Department said, following his detention last week on espionage charges.
Mr. Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the continued detention of Evan Gershkovich and another wrongfully detained American, Paul Whelan, was “unacceptable” and they should be released immediately, according to an official statement on the call.
“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” the statement said. “Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan. The Secretary and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.”
Little is known about Mr. Gershkovich’s condition or well-being since he was taken into custody Wednesday by officers with the Russian Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, while he was on assignment outside of Moscow. The State Department has demanded consular officials be permitted to visit the 31-year-old reporter to determine whether he is treated in accordance with the law.
Mr. Gershkovich was detained March 29 while on a reporting trip to the Russian provincial city of Yekaterinburg, about 800 miles east of Moscow. He is the first American journalist to be arrested by Russian authorities since 1986, and is one of several Americans the U.S. has said were deemed wrongfully detained by Russia in recent years.
Mr. Whelan has been in Russian custody since 2018.
Mr. Gershkovich’s employer, colleagues and the Biden administration all deny Russia’s claim that he was spying on behalf of the U.S., and have called for his immediate release.
“The Wall Street Journal demands the immediate release of our colleague, Evan Gershkovich, a distinguished journalist who was arrested while reporting in Russia,” the Journal said in a statement Saturday. “We know what’s going on in the world because of the fearless reporting of journalists like Evan. Evan’s case is a vicious affront to a free press, and should spur outrage in all free people and governments throughout the world. No reporter should ever be detained for simply doing their job.”