The White House is yet to deport Russian diplomats accredited in the United States in response to the arrest of The Wall Street Journal’s American correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, in an espionage case.
“This is not our plan right now” aforementioned In response to a question about US President Joe Biden.
At the same time, he urged the Russian authorities to release the journalist.
Earlier, the WSJ newspaper wrote that the Russian ambassador to Washington and all representatives of the Russian media should be expelled.
“The Biden administration will have to evaluate the diplomatic and political escalation. The expulsion of the Russian ambassador to the United States and all Russian journalists working there will be the lowest that can be expected,” the publication says on its website.
American journalists stressed that the first thing the US government should do is “protect their citizens, and there are too many governments right now that think they can arrest and jail Americans with impunity.”
The WSJ believes that the arrest of an American journalist in Russia shows “a decrease in the ability of the United States to deter attacks on its citizens.” At the same time, the publication thanks the White House for condemning Gershkovich’s arrest in the same article.
The previous day, when it was learned that a journalist had been detained on suspicion of espionage, Vedant Patel, deputy head of the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the United States would not yet take any retaliatory measures. Authorities now plan to learn the circumstances of the incident and grant Gershkovich consular access.
“The US Embassy in Moscow has requested formal notice of his arrest, which Russia must provide under our bilateral consular agreement,” he said.
Patel believes this will take several days, “given Russian administrative procedures and security requirements.”
Detention and arrest
On March 30, it was learned that FSB officers detained a journalist from the Moscow office of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg. According to law enforcement officials, Gershkovich collected classified information about one of the Russian defense establishments. The intelligence service is confident that it is doing this on the orders of the US government. A criminal case was opened against him for espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). If proven guilty, Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison.
On the same day, the Moscow Lefortovo Court arrested the man for two months. The case is being handled by the FSB’s head office.
On the morning of March 30, Yaroslav Shirshikov, Yekaterinburg Public Relations officer and author of the Hussar Bravado Telegram channel, reported the disappearance of an American journalist in connection with the disappearance of an American journalist. He said that Gershkovich was first of all interested in the attitude of society to Wagner PMC and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“He met with a deputy of the district parliament, a simple hard worker and the editor-in-chief of one of the media in the city,” Shirshikov said.
In an interview with socialbites.ca, Shirshikov said that he has already received a call from the broadcast. He was told that they would specifically send defenders and that they would “cooperate on diplomatic lines”.
Citing a source, the Meduza publication (the organization was included in the list of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice) reported that in addition to Yekaterinburg, Gershkovich visited Nizhny Tagil, where Uralvagonzavod is located.
Journalist Dmitry Kolezev (known as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) wrote on his Telegram channel (known as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation): “When Evan went to prepare such material, it was very risky, but he was well aware. its risks.
Statements from the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry
Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov noted that Gershkovich was “caught red-handed”. However, he did not disclose the details of the detention, emphasizing that “this is the FSB’s prerogative”.
“We do not have details, of course it is of a closed nature, the Federal Security Service is dealing with it,” the Kremlin spokesperson said.
Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claims that the work of the WSJ correspondent in Yekaterinburg “has nothing to do with journalism.”
According to him, it is not the first time that foreigners have used their journalistic status and accreditation “to cover up non-journalistic activities”. “He’s not the first prominent Westerner to be taken away,” a ministry spokesman said.
As for the expulsion of Russian media representatives from the USA, Dmitry Peskov is convinced that this is “nonsense and wrong.”
“Since this journalist was caught red-handed, the situation is clear here. In this context, to demand the deportation of all Russian journalists, the newspaper can do that, but this should not happen. “There’s no reason for that,” Peskov said.
He reminded that other foreign journalists with valid accreditation “can and will continue their journalism activities in our country”. “They don’t face any restrictions and they work great. But in this case we’re essentially talking about activities under the guise of journalistic espionage,” he said.
Still, the US administration has urged US citizens to refrain from traveling to Russia following the arrest of Evan Gershkovich. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recalled the situation with Americans Paul Whelan and Trevor Reid, who were previously convicted in Russia. Reed was later replaced by Russian Konstantin Yaroshenko.