U.S. Ambassador Meets With Detained Wall Street Journal Reporter
Lynne Tracy visited with Evan Gershkovich, the third such visit since the U.S. reporter was arrested in Russia in March Detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at a court hearing in Moscow in June. Photo: natalia kolesnikova/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Ann M. Simmons Updated Aug. 14, 2023 2:23 pm ET The U.S. ambassador to Russia was granted access to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Monday in the third such visit since his detention in March. U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy’s visit with Gershkovich at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison follows two earlier meetings that came amid friction between Washington and Moscow over the infrequency of consular access to the American reporter. Monday’s visit occurred six weeks after Tracy’s last m
Detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at a court hearing in Moscow in June.
Photo: natalia kolesnikova/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The U.S. ambassador to Russia was granted access to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Monday in the third such visit since his detention in March.
U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy’s visit with Gershkovich at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison follows two earlier meetings that came amid friction between Washington and Moscow over the infrequency of consular access to the American reporter. Monday’s visit occurred six weeks after Tracy’s last meeting with Gershkovich on July 3.
“Ambassador Tracy reported that Evan continues to appear in good health and remains strong, despite the circumstances,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement.
Gershkovich, a 31-year-old U.S. citizen who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, was detained by agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29. He is being held on an allegation of espionage that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy leaving a Moscow court building in June.
Photo: Sofya Sandurskaya/Zuma Press
The Biden administration has said Gershkovich, the first American journalist arrested on an espionage accusation in Russia since the end of the Cold War, isn’t a spy and has never worked for the government. The State Department has designated the reporter as wrongfully detained, a status that unlocks a broad U.S. government effort to free him.
The issue of consular access to Americans—including Gershkovich—who are jailed in Russia has been a contentious one between the U.S. and Russia. The 1963 Vienna Convention signed by both countries allows states consular access to their nationals who are arrested or detained in other nations.
However, the U.S. has said that Russia ignores the convention and instead has delayed or deprived jailed Americans of diplomatic access. Tracy’s July visit with Gershkovich came nearly three months after her first meeting with the jailed reporter.
Moscow had denied requests for consular access to Gershkovich in April and May, saying it was a response to the U.S. decision to deny visas to Russian journalists seeking to travel to New York in the spring.
In June, a Russian court upheld a request from the FSB to extend the reporter’s detention to at least Aug. 30 while he awaits trial, denying an appeal from Gershkovich’s lawyers. His pretrial detention was initially set to expire on May 29.
Legal experts say defendants in Russia, particularly those accused of serious crimes such as espionage, face long odds of successfully challenging their detention, securing house arrest or being released on bail.
The Biden administration has continued to press Russia to release Gershkovich. President Biden said last month that the U.S. is “serious about a prisoner exchange” to secure his freedom.
Since American Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia, his family has written him letters and attended hearings in Moscow to try and keep the detained WSJ reporter’s spirits up. They spoke to WSJ’s Shelby Holliday about the past 100 days.
However, the White House has cautioned that talks with Russia on potential prisoner swaps haven’t yet yielded “a pathway to a resolution” for Gershkovich or other Americans the U.S. considers wrongfully detained in Russia. These include Paul Whelan, a businessman who was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison in 2020 on an espionage charge that he and the U.S. deny.
The Kremlin said in July that Russia was in touch with the U.S. about prisoner swaps.
A spokesman for the State Department said that “once again, the United States calls on the Russian Federation to immediately release Evan Gershkovich and also to release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan.”
Gershkovich’s case has garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives, which in June voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling on Russia to immediately free Gershkovich and demanding that Moscow provide the reporter unconstrained access to U.S. consular officials during his imprisonment.
Legal experts say it could be many months before Gershkovich’s case is brought to trial, as investigators gather materials to present before the judge. Conviction on espionage charges in Russia carries a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years and it is rare for a court to acquit a defendant.
Write to Ann M. Simmons at [email protected]
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