Blinken phoned Lavrov

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken telephoned Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They discussed the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkowitz.
Anthony Blinken expressed concern over Gershkovich’s detention and called for his release. Sergei Lavrov, in turn, said that Washington and the Western media should not make noise with the intention of giving the case “political coloring”. He noted that the fate of the detained journalist will be determined by the court.
“It was stressed that officials in Washington and the Western media should not make noise with the clear intention of giving this matter a political tinge. Lavrov specifically noted that Gershkovich was caught in the act of trying to obtain secret information, collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of a journalist’s status,” the Russian Affairs Ministry said. foreigners in a press release.
Recall that on March 30 it became known that the FSB in Yekaterinburg arrested the American journalist Evan Gershkovich. The WSJ correspondent was suspected of having collected secret state documents on a Russian defense industry company.
Later, the Lefortovo court in Moscow arrested Gershkovich. The court chose a measure of restraint for the American journalist in the form of detention until May 29, 2023. The Gershkovich case is marked “top secret”. The WSJ correspondent does not acknowledge the spying allegations. On this charge (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), he faces up to 20 years in prison.The message Blinken phoned Lavrov