Russian foreign minister rejects request and says US must not ‘make a fuss’ over arrest of Evan Gershkovich
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, called for Russia to free the detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich in a rare phone call with his Moscow counterpart since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Gershkovich, 31, was detained on Wednesday in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg and accused by Russia’s FSB internal security agency of collecting “classified information” on a company in its military industrial complex.The WSJ says it “vehemently denies the allegations” and would campaign for his release, while experts said Russia might be trying to use the reporter as a hostage and bargaining chip.
No further evidence was offered in support of Lavrov’s assertion, but he warned the US against trying to ratchet up campaigning for his release, arguing that Russia’s judicial process should be allowed to take its course. Before his arrest, Gershkovich was reportedly working on a story about Wagner, the notionally private military groupMedia freedoms in Russia have been dramatically eroded since the full invasion of Ukraine in February last year, but the detention of Gershkovich marks a further downturn in an increasingly tense atmosphere.
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