US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged all American citizens to leave Russia as soon as possible after The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained and arrested on suspicion of espionage.
“We reiterate our strong warnings of the danger threatening US citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation. We call on citizens living in Russia to leave immediately, and those who go there to abandon these plans,” the diplomat said in a written statement.
According to him, Washington “condemns the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress and punish journalists and civil society representatives.” Blinken added that the White House is in contact with the WSJ and will provide all necessary support to Gershkovich.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said the State Department was “in direct contact” with Russian officials regarding the journalist’s detention and his access to the consulate. She also condemned Moscow’s actions and stressed that “the persecution of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable”.
Gershkovich, who worked in Russia for six years, was detained by the FSB on March 29 in Yekaterinburg. According to the intelligence service, on the instructions of the American side, he collected information containing state secrets about one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex there. He was detained while trying to obtain classified data, the FSB reported. Russian President Dmitry Peskov’s press secretary said he was “caught red-handed”.
At the same time, familiar journalists said that Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg was collecting information for a material about the attitude of society towards PMC Wagner and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. This was partially confirmed by the deputy of the Sverdlovsk Legislative Assembly Vyacheslav Wegner – he gave an interview to the WSJ correspondent the day before.
According to Wegner, Gershkovich wanted to talk with the “patriots” about their position on special operations, humanitarian aid to the Russian army and the activities of the Wagner PMC.
“I was also intrigued by the activities of PMC Wagner, in particular he asked why I was writing to Prigozhin. And about industrial enterprises [спрашивал]How they were redirected during the NWO,” said the MP.
But the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Gershkovich’s work has little to do with journalism. “Unfortunately, it is not the first time that foreign correspondent status, journalism visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in our country to cover up non-journalistic activities. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she was not the first prominent Westerner to be “handled”.
On March 30, Gershkovich was taken by the Lefortovo Court to Moscow, where he was detained for two months. Suspected within the scope of art. 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Espiation), for which he is sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The materials of the case are classified, the journalist himself does not admit his guilt.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Ivanov said that against the background of the detention and arrest of Gershkovich, there are no problems with issuing Russian visas to foreign journalists, including those from the USA. He also said that Washington has not yet formally contacted Moscow about the arrested reporter.
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov said that the issue of replacing Gershkovich with Russians arrested or imprisoned in the United States is not on the agenda at the moment. This happened after a number of Western media and Telegram channels expressed the opinion that the journalist could be used to change the status of a Russian prisoner in the United States.
White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby later said the situation regarding Gershkovich’s detention and arrest had been communicated to President Joe Biden. And the American authorities now maintain contact not only with the newspaper for which he works, but also with the family of the journalist.
At the same time, he noted that Washington’s stance on Gershkovich’s arrest does not mean that the American media should urgently recall their employees from Russia.
“I will not call on other media to withdraw their journalists from Moscow. We understand that you all have important work to do. All of you are ready and willing to take risks in doing this job,” Kirby explained.
On the evening of March 30, Zakharova announced that at the request of the American side, Gershkovich was granted consular access. But the State Department also said it would take several days to gain consular access to the journalist, after which American diplomats expected to meet with him.