Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and urged an immediate release of US citizen journalist Evan Gershkovich detained by Russia’s FSB over charges of espionage.
Vedant Patel, US Principal Deputy Spokesperson, in a statement, said that “US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. The Secretary called for his immediate release.”
He further added that “The Secretary and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.”
Blinken reportedly also urged an ‘immediate’ release of US citizen Paul Whelan, detained in Russia.
Earlier, the US Department of State in an advisory urged US citizens traveling to or in Russia to immediately leave the country.
Earlier, Evan Gershkovich, a reporter from Wall Street Journal was detained by FSB in Russia. In an official statement, FSB alleged that “Gershkovich acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,”.
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