US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the US had got consular access to Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been held by Russia in prison on suspicion of spying. As per a report by news agency AFP, Blinken said that the US ambassador Lynne Tracy in Moscow was able to visit Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in prison. Last month, Russia’s top security agency said Gershkovich was detained on suspicion of espionage.
“I can report based on what Ambassador Tracy has said that he’s in good health and good spirits, considering the circumstances,” Blinken was quoted as saying by the news agency.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that Gershkovich was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Ekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information.
#AmbTracy: I visited @WSJ’s Evan #Gershkovich today at Lefortovo Prison – the first time we’ve been permitted access to him since his wrongful detention more than two weeks ago. He is in good health and remains strong. We reiterate our call for his immediate release. #FreeEvan
— US Embassy in the Russian Federation/ US Embassy Russia (@USEmbRu) April 17, 2023
In a statement quoted by Associated Press, the FSB said it had “stopped the illegal activities of U.S. citizen Gershkovich Evan, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government”.
The scribe “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex”.
If convicted of espionage, Gershkovich could face upto 20 years in prison.
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Gershkovich is the first reporter for a US news outlet to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the cold war. His arrest comes amid bitter tensions between Moscow and Washington DC over the fighting in Ukraine.
As a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich covers Russia and Ukraine.
His latest report from Moscow, published before his detention, focused on the Russian economy’s slowdown amid western sanctions imposed when Russian troops entered Ukraine last year.