The U.S. ambassador to Russia met with Evan Gershkovich, the jailed American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow on Monday, the State Department stated hours after their speak.
The go to by the ambassador, Lynne Tracey, marked the third time she had met with Mr. Gershkovich since he was detained by the Russian authorities in March.
“Ambassador Tracy said that Evan continues to appear in good health and remains strong, despite his circumstances,” the State Department stated in a written assertion.
American officers have stated that their Russian counterparts are blocking them from getting common consular entry to Mr. Gershkovich, the primary American journalist arrested on an espionage cost in Russia because the finish of the Cold War.
Relations between Washington and Moscow are at their lowest level in many years following the choice by President Vladmir V. Putin to begin a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Analysts say Russian officers underneath Mr. Putin possible detained Mr. Gershkovich in hopes of doing a prisoner swap with the United States.
Russian officers are holding Mr. Gershkovich, 31, on an accusation of spying though he’s a journalist with accreditation from Russia’s Foreign Ministry and regardless of the very fact he was doing reporting on the time of his detention.
Agents from the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., detained Mr. Gershkovich on March 29 whereas he was on a reporting journey within the metropolis of Yekaterinburg within the Urals area.
The Wall Street Journal and Mr. Gershkovich’s relations have denied any accusation that he’s a spy, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated in April that he had been wrongfully detained.
In December 2022, President Biden agreed to launch Viktor Bout, an imprisoned Russian weapons vendor, in alternate for the liberty of Brittney Griner, the American basketball star, almost 10 months after Ms. Griner was detained in Moscow on accusations of drug smuggling and possession. The State Department stated in May 2022 that she had been wrongfully detained.
Russia has stated it would talk about prisoner releases with the United States by way of a particular channel that Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin established at a gathering in Geneva in 2021. The negotiations to launch of Ms. Griner befell by way of that channel.
A Russian court docket determined in June to increase Mr. Gershkovich’s detention till no less than Aug. 30 and denied an enchantment from his attorneys. The detention was initially purported to have ended on May 29. Ms. Tracey final met with Mr. Gershkovich in jail on July 3.
Source: www.nytimes.com