Representatives of Russia and the US talk about the situation of journalist Evan Gershkovich

5 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasili Nebenzia, and his US counterpart, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, met on Tuesday to discuss the situation of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last week by Russian authorities.

This was confirmed this Wednesday by Thomas-Greenfield herself, who has detailed that in her conversation with Nebenzia she expressed the “firm demand” of the United States for the “immediate release” of the reporter, the news network collects.

“It is really unacceptable to use a journalist who
had been accredited in Russia and accuse him of the type of actions of which he has been accused,” lamented the US diplomatic representative to the UN.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajarova, also confirmed this Wednesday that the authorities are “resolving” the possibility of Gershkovich receiving consular assistance from the United States.

“The issue of consular access has been taken into consideration. It is being resolved taking into account the already existing consular practice and Russian legislation,” Zajarova said at a press conference, according to the Russian agency TASS.

Previously, the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, had assured that the journalist’s release is a “priority” for the president of the United States, Joe Biden. “Evan is not a spy and he never has been,” she defended.

Russian authorities detained Gershkovich last week in the city of Yekaterinburg. The journalist faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison for being suspected of “acting on orders from the United States to collect information that constitutes state secrets about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Specifically, he would have been gathering information about the Wagner Group, owned by the oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and who has sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich’s last article published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ dates from March 28 under the headline ‘Russia’s economy is beginning to unravel’.