The United States on Sunday expressed concern over the detention of US citizen journalist Evan Gershkovich and called for his immediate release. Last week on Thursday, US citizen journalist for Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on espionage charges, Russia's top security agency said.
“It has been established that E. Gershkovich, acting on an assignment from the American side, was gathering information classified as a state secret about the activity of one of the enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex,” Russia’s FSB security service said, as quoted by Reuters.
US Secretary Antony Blinken expressed his concern over the detention of Gershkovich in a telephone conversation with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States' grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a US citizen journalist. The Secretary called for his immediate release," according to a readout issued by the US Department of State, attributed to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.
Gershkovich could be imprisoned for about 20 years if he gets convicted of espionage. Blinken also urged Kremlin to release wrongfully detained US citizen Paul Whelan. "I spoke with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today to convey our grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. I called for his release and for the release of wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan," Blinken said in a tweet on Sunday.
Reacting to Gershkovich’s arrest, US President Joe Biden has urged Russia to release him. “Let him go,” Biden told reporters at the White House when asked about his message to Russia on the arrest of Gershkovich, as reported by the news agency AP.
The top agency said that the reporter was detained from the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while he was allegedly trying to collect classified information. WSJ in a statement expressed deep concern and said, "The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for the safety of Gershkovich."