US envoy pays first visit to reporter Gershkovich in Moscow prison

MOSCOW – United States Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy on Monday said that she had made her first visit to jailed Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich, who Moscow arrested on March 30 on charges of spying.

“He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” Ms Tracy said in a statement in Russian on Telegram.

Gershkovich, who was hired by the WSJ shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, was arrested in March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. It is the first time since 1986 that an American reporter has been held for alleged espionage in Russia.

His newspaper has rejected the charge, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

The White House has called it “ridiculous”, and President Joe Biden has said Gershkovich’s detention is “totally illegal”.

Ms Tracy did not say how long she had spent with the reporter in Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre.

The visit took place on the eve of a court hearing that is due to consider Gershkovich’s appeal against his detention.

In Washington, the White House said that it hopes to get regular consular access to Gershkovich.

“It was good to get to see him today, and again we want to make sure we can continue to do that,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, has accused Gershkovich of collecting state secrets about Russia’s military-industrial complex.

The Kremlin says that he was “caught red-handed” but has not published any evidence to support that claim.

The US on April 13 designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained”, in effect saying that the spy charges were bogus, and the case was political.

The top US hostage envoy Roger Carstens has pledged to do “whatever it takes” to bring home Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who was convicted of espionage in 2020 and has also been designated by Washington as wrongfully detained. REUTERS