White House: USA maintains contact with Russia on the fate of journalist Gershkovich

WASHINGTON, May 4 – RIA Novosti. White House National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said the US was in high-level contact with Russia about the arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkowitz and was pressing him for more consular access.

“All I can say is that we are actively working for Evan’s release and are in high-level contact with Russian officials,” Kirby said.

He noted that Washington insisted on expanding consular access to the journalist arrested in the Russian Federation, because at the moment US diplomats have only had the opportunity to visit Gershkovich once.

On March 30, the Russian FSB announced that Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the WSJ Moscow bureau, was detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of spying on behalf of the US government. According to the Russian intelligence service, the American collected information “about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex”, which constitutes a state secret. The Moscow Lefortovo Court arrested him for two months. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Gershkovich was caught red-handed. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that Gershkovich’s activities in Yekaterinburg have nothing to do with journalism. According to him, it is not the first time that foreign correspondent status, journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in Russia to cover up non-journalistic activities.