Russia again denies consular visit for WSJ reporter

In barring US officials from visiting Evan Gershkovich, Moscow blames Washington over visa status of its reporters.

The Russian government has rejected for a second time a request from US officials to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a Moscow prison.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry linked the move to a complaint that its journalists didn’t get US visas to travel with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations in New York last month. The ministry had rejected an earlier request for a consular visit over the same complaint. Russian reporters aren’t behind bars in the US

The State Department said it had sought a meeting with Gershkovich on May 25.

“We strongly object to Russia’s ongoing failure to comply with its obligations under the Consular Convention to provide us consular access to detained US citizens,” a State Department spokeswoman said. “Regardless of the hurdles, our team is focused on ensuring timely consular access to all US nationals detained abroad.”

US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited Gershkovich a month ago in the first access provided to US officials since his detention in March.

In a bipartisan resolution passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week, lawmakers called on Russia to provide “full, unfettered, and consistent consular access” to Gershkovich.

Gershkovich, 31 years old, was detained on March 29 by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, while he was on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg and held on an allegation of espionage that The Wall Street Journal and the US government vehemently deny.

Gershkovich was confined to a prison in Moscow. On April 18 he appeared before a judge, who denied his appeal to lift his pre-trial detention.

Lawyers retained by Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, were first allowed to visit Gershkovich on April 4.

Russian authorities haven’t publicly provided evidence to support their espionage allegation, and the US government has designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained. Western governments, global news organisations, press-freedom advocates and human-rights groups around the world have joined the Journal and the US administration in demanding the journalist’s immediate release. The US has said Gershkovich isn’t a spy and has never worked for the government.

The Wall Street Journal