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Russia has rejected a request from the US embassy to visit imprisoned journalist Evan Gershkovich on May 11. The correspondent of The Wall Street Journal is being held on suspicion of espionage, according to the unjustified United States. A representative of the Russian Embassy in the United States was authorized to visit two Russian prisoners in New York last Wednesday.

The Russian refusal is in retaliation for not issuing visas to Russian journalists who wanted to travel to the United States in the wake of Foreign Minister Lavrov. Lavrov was in New York this week for a meeting of the UN Security Council, which Russia currently chairs.

The White House on Thursday announced sanctions against Russia’s FSB security service following the arrest of Gershkovich and other Americans. The same sanctions were imposed on Iran’s security service, which engaged in similar practices: “Our message to Russia, Iran and the world is that taking Americans hostage or detaining them for improper reasons is unacceptable,” President Biden said. “Release them immediately.”

A full-page ad was placed in three American newspapers with the words “journalism is not a crime” called for the release of Gershkovich. His arrest is “the latest development in a disturbing trend of journalists being harassed, arrested, or worse, for reporting the news”.

Joram Bolle

Also read this profile on Gershkovich: The American journalist who wrote about the country his parents fled is now imprisoned there