Antony Blinken Calls Russian Counterpart, Demands Release of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gersh

[mystery-ak]

Antony Blinken Calls Russian Counterpart, Demands Release of Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich
By Joe Cunningham | 12:37 PM on April 02, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in contact with his counterpart in the Russian government and demanded the release of U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, according to multiple reports.

That call, which was made to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, expressed “grave concern” over the arrest of Gershkovich, as well as the continued detention of another U.S. citizen, Paul Whelan. Whelan has been held by the Russians since December 2018, when he was arrested while visiting for a friend’s wedding.

However, Lavrov has pushed back, saying that America needs “to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “attention was drawn to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, taken in accordance with the law and international obligations of the Russian Federation.”

    The ministry said that the Russians emphasized that “it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the Western media to whip up a stir with the clear intention of giving this case a political coloring.”

    The Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was notified of Mr. Gershkovich’s detention “in accordance with established procedures.”

Little is known about the charges behind the arrest of Gershkovich. In a statement released late last week, Russia’s FSB released a statement, though little evidence behind the allegations is available.

“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation stopped the illegal activities of the correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, who is suspected of spying for the American government,” the FSB said in its statement at the time. “It was established that Gershkovich, acting at the request of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex. The foreign national was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to obtain classified information.”

more
https://redstate.com/joesquire/2023/04/02/antony-blinken-calls-russian-counterpart-demands-release-of-wall-street-journal-reporter-evan-gershkovich-n725225

[catfish1957]

My advise to Mr. Gershkovic is to express that you are trans or gay ball player , and you are an undying Biden supporter.

Otherwise you are going to rot in a Russian gulag just like Whelan

[mountaineer]

UPDATE
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone on Wednesday with American citizen Paul Whelan, who is being held in a Russian prison, according to a source familiar with the call. Probably actually said, "Sorry, bud, you're s.o.l. If only you were in the WNBA or black ..."

Blinken Spoke With Paul Whelan, American Detained in Russian Prison
Wednesday, 16 August 2023 05:07 PM EDT

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone on Wednesday with American citizen Paul Whelan, who is being held in a Russian prison, according to a source familiar with the call.

Blinken told Whelan to "keep the faith and we're doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as possible," CNN reported, citing a source.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested in 2018, held for 18 months in Lefortovo prison in Moscow and jailed for 16 years in 2020 on spying charges. He has denied the accusations. ...

NEWSMAX

[mountaineer]

ANOTHER UPDATE

"They've left me behind," Paul Whelan says from inside Russian prison
Tucker Reals
Updated Wed, December 20, 2023 at 3:52 PM EST·4 min read

Paul Whelan, an American who's been imprisoned in Russia for 5 years on espionage charges that both he and the U.S. government dismiss as baseless, has said it's "unfathomable" that the Biden administration has "left me behind" while other Americans have been freed in prisoner swaps. Whelan told CBS News' partner network BBC News in a phone interview from prison that he feared he would be left out of any future prisoner swap with Russia, too.

"A serious betrayal. It's extremely frustrating," he told the BBC. "I know that the U.S. has come up with all sorts of proposals — serious proposals — but it's not what the Russians are after. So they keep going back and forth. The only problem is, it's my life that's draining away while they do this."

"It's five years. It's unfathomable to me that they've left me behind," said Whelan, who is also a citizen of the U.K., Ireland and Canada. ...

CBS News via Yahoo! News