The US Embassy in Moscow has requested an official notice of the arrest of journalist Gershkovich
Embassy UNITED STATES V Russia sent a request Moscow to provide official notice of the arrest of an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich. This was announced on March 30 by the deputy head of the press service State Department Vedant Patel, the briefing was broadcast on Youtube State Department channel.
“The US Embassy in Moscow has requested official notification of his arrest, Russia must provide it in accordance with our bilateral consular agreement,” Patel said.
He pointed out that given Russian administrative procedures and security requirements, this procedure will take several days.
US diplomats expect to meet the arrested journalist Gershkovich under consular access in the coming days. It is pointed out that the states are now focusing on clarifying the circumstances and consular access to Gershkovich.
Associated materials:
On March 30, Evan Gershkovich was held V Yekaterinburg. He is suspected of collecting information constituting a state secret. We are talking about materials related to the enterprise of the Russian defense industry. A criminal case has been opened against Gershkovich under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Espionage”). Later, the Lefortovo court in Moscow arrested the journalist until May 29, in the near future he will go to SIZO “Lefortovo”.
Later head of the U.S. State Department Anthony Blinken declaredthat the United States is concerned about the situation with the arrest of an American citizen in Russia. In the same day US administration urged all Americans to leave Russia in light of the correspondent’s arrest.
In turn, the first vice-president State Duma Committee on International Affairs Svetlana Zhurova saidIt is too early to talk about the exchange of the correspondent Gershkovich suspected of espionage.