Blinken calls for American reporter’s immediate release in call with Lavrov

Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked to his Russian counterpart Sunday and called for the “immediate release” of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last week by Russian authorities and dubiously accused of spying.

“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist,” deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement.

The Kremlin issued its own statement on the Blinken call, indicating that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of politicizing The Wall Street Journal reporter’s case.

Mr. Lavrov told Mr. Blinken that Mr. Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a court and reiterated Russia’s assertion, for which it has not publicly stated any evidence, that the journalist was caught “red-handed” last week, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said, according to Reuters.

Russian authorities arrested Mr. Gershkovich on Thursday on allegations of espionage. The arrest sparked a furious reaction in Washington and stoked fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin has fully embraced a new strategy as retaliation for Western opposition to his invasion of Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal vehemently denied the charges against Mr. Gershkovich, a veteran journalist who speaks fluent Russian. He was taken into custody by Russia’s Federal Security Service in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Russian detention of Americans is nothing new. Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been held in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges. His family and the U.S. government say those charges are entirely baseless.

Analysts say Mr. Putin believes he can use Americans to secure the release of Russian prisoners — a strategy employed last year after WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained on a trip to Russia until the Biden administration agreed to free arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange.

The State Department said Mr. Blinken raised the Whelan case during his discussion with Mr. Lavrov on Sunday, calling on the Kremlin to “immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan.”

“The Secretary and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work,” said Mr. Patel.

Interactions between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats have been rare since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sunday’s call was the highest level, in-person talks between the two countries since the war’s start.

The call came amid speculation that Russia may seek to use Mr. Gershkovich as leverage for prisoner swap.

Before to The Wall Street Journal reporter’s arrest, Russia’s foreign intelligence operations were facing major setbacks internationally, with hundreds of Russians suspected of spying being expelled or charged with espionage in Western countries, according to a report by NBC.

U.S. authorities last week unmasked Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian spying suspect who posed as a Brazilian graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Prosecutors say he tried to land a job at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr. Cherkasov is incarcerated in Brazil on fraud charges. He was charged last month in U.S. federal court with “acting as an agent of a foreign power,” according to a Justice Department press release.

Russia’s arrest of Mr. Gershkovich came just days after the Cherkasov charges were announced in Washington.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last week that Russia is not seeking any quick prisoner swap for The Wall Street Journal reporter.

“I wouldn’t even consider this issue now because people who were previously swapped had already served their sentences,” Mr. Ryabkov said, according to Russian news agencies.

More than 30 news organizations and press freedom advocates have written to the Russian ambassador in the United States to express concern that Moscow’s arrest of Mr. Gershkovich has sent a message that reporting inside Russia is criminalized.

• Ben Wolfgang contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.