Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke on Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States’ grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of U.S. citizen journalist Evan Gershkovich.
The Secretary called for his immediate release. Secretary Blinken further urged 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.
From now on, all foreign journalists, and by default all foreign nationals, are potential fair game for Putin and the Russian security services, and it would appear that this rule applies not just to journalism but to everything happening in Russia from now on, – Andrei Soldatov, investigative journalist.
News: U.S. Government Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.
