US Embassy officials still not allowed to visit WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia
US Embassy officials in Moscow are still being denied the ability to visit Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich — two weeks after he was arrested in Russia on accusations of spying, a report said Tuesday.
The Kremlin has not provided a legitimate explanation for rebuffing the demands of consular officials — despite multiple attempts through all legal mechanisms, a State Department spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.
US officials continue to press the Russians for consular access to all detained US citizens as part of its legal obligations, the report said.
“It’s inexcusable. We need to get consular access to Evan,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said last week.
Gershkovich, who had been reporting from Russia for more than a year, was arrested on March 29 and accused of trying to obtain classified information about a Russian military facility.
He pleaded not guilty at a court hearing.
Gershkovich, 31, was officially declared “wrongfully detained” by the State Department on Monday — a designation that gives the US government greater authority to push for his release and regular consular access.
The WSJ said the designation of “wrongfully detained” was notable for its speed and the fact that it is rarely assigned before a detainee is able to meet with consular officials from the embassy.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said last week that access to Gershkovich would come in due time but would have to follow standard Russian procedures.
“This issue is being worked out and will be resolved, taking into account the existing consular practices and our legislation,” she said.
US officials have cited the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which states that officials have the right to visit a citizen “in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.”
Both Russia and the US signed the agreement.
Beyond that, the State Department points to an accord signed with the then-Soviet Union in 1964 that requires the timely notification of the arrest of a US national and consular access “without delay.”
Russia inherited the pact after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and both countries refer to the document in communications with each other, the State Department said.
Almar Latour, the WSJ’s publisher, said last week that company lawyers have been able to meet with Gershkovich in prison.
Formal notification of Gershkovich’s arrest only came over the weekend, the State Department said.
“The ministry did provide notification of detention but they still have not provided consular access,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told the Journal on Monday.
“We have stressed the need for the Russian government to provide this access as soon as possible,” Patel said. “We have a number of tools at our disposal to hold the Russian government to account broadly.”
Russia makes it extremely difficult for the embassy in Moscow to visit detained US citizens “often due to opaque and bureaucratic hurdles our embassy needs to work through to gain access,” a State Department spokeswoman said.
The US faces similar obstacles in visiting detained citizens in Iran, Cuba and North Korea, the person said.
The same scenario occurred with WNBA star Brittney Griner after she was arrested in Moscow on drug charges a week before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Griner was detained on Feb. 17, 2022, when she landed at a Moscow airport but news of her arrest wasn’t revealed until March 5.
Embassy officials were unable to meet with her until March 22.
Griner, sentenced to 10 years in prison, was released in December in exchange for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.”
