The State Department on Monday officially designated an American reporter as “wrongfully detained” by Russia, after he was arrested in March on espionage charges.
“Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”
The new designation elevates Gershkovich’s case, sending it to a State Department office that specializes in negotiating the release of hostages and those wrongfully detained in other countries.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 29 in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city. The Wall Street Journal, his employer, has denied the charges and demanded Gershkovich’s release — as have other news organizations, including POLITICO.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously called for Gershkovich’s release, and earlier this month spoke with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia to convey “the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist” — a rare communication between high-level U.S. and Russian officials amid tension over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On Monday, the State Department also called for the release of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who has been wrongfully detained in Russia after his arrest there in 2018.
from Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories https://ift.tt/YHdSCP5
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment