Blinken says the U.S. is ‘intensely engaged’ in efforts to free Evan Gershkovich.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken mentioned on Wednesday that the U.S. authorities remained “intensely engaged” in efforts to get Moscow to free Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who has been held for greater than a month on espionage fees that his employer and American officers vehemently deny.

Speaking at a World Press Freedom Day occasion at The Washington Post, Mr. Blinken reiterated that President Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had a “special channel” for discussing prisoners.

“I wish I could say in this moment there was a clear way forward,” he mentioned. “I don’t have that in this moment.”

“We have a country in the case of Russia that like a handful of other countries around the world is wrongfully detaining people, using them as political pawns, using them as leverage in a practice that is absolutely unacceptable and that we’re working both broadly to try to deter — but also at the same time to try to secure the release of those who are being unjustly detained,” Mr. Blinken mentioned.

He added that the State Department was engaged on getting Russia to permit extra consular visits with Mr. Gershkovich, who has had just one to this point. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne M. Tracy, was capable of meet with him on April 17.

He mentioned Mr. Gershkovich’s Russian attorneys had advised Journal officers that he was receiving letters in jail.

“We have heard from them that Evan is thankful and is reading every letter he is getting,” Mr. Latour mentioned.

At the press freedom occasion, David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, pressed Mr. Blinken on when the State Department would possibly make a proper dedication {that a} Russian journalist and Post contributor, Vladimir Kara-Murza, had been wrongfully imprisoned by Russia. Mr. Ignatius identified that Mr. Kara-Murza has been a everlasting resident of the United States and that his spouse and two kids are U.S. residents.

“I don’t want to put a time frame on it,” Mr. Blinken mentioned. “Again, it’s something that we’re looking at constantly.”