Top U.S. and Russian diplomats spoke by phone in an uncommon call Sunday about the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded the Russians immediately release Gershkovich, who was arrested last week while reporting in Russia.
Blinken called Gershkovich’s arrest “unacceptable” and echoed President Biden’s call to “Let him go.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was not impressed, according to a statement from the Kremlin. Lavrov asked Blinken and the U.S. government to stop “whipping up excitement” about Gershkovich’s detainment.
Gershkvoich was arrested Thursday in Yekaterinburg, about 800 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains. The Russian FSB, the successor to the KGB, said Gershkovich was spying on a Russian military installation and was “caught red-handed.”
However, the Russians haven’t released any evidence to that point. The Wall Street Journal has called the charges bogus and said Gershkvoich was just doing his job as a reporter.
“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the paper said.
Gershkovich has not been allowed to speak with Journal lawyers, though a visit is scheduled for Tuesday, according to the paper. At Gershkovich’s initial court appearance, with a state-appointed lawyer, he was ordered held until May 29.
Blinken said he also spoke with Lavrov about the continued detention of Paul Whelan, an ex-Marine who was convicted on espionage charges in 2018 and remains in a Russian prison. Whelan’s release was also part of U.S.-Russia negotiations around Brittney Griner, but he was eventually left out of the one-for-one prisoner swap that exchanged Griner and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
While Griner’s court proceedings were relatively public, Gershkovich’s could remain clouded by secrecy because of the charges against him. FSB trials often take place in secret with little to no evidence made public, and they are disconnected from the rest of the Russian legal system.
Gershkovich was the first American journalist arrested in Russia since 1986, when U.S. News and World Report correspondent Nicholas Daniloff was detained in Moscow. Daniloff was released 20 days later in a prisoner swap.