In an alleged tit-for-tat response Thursday, Russia said it denied a U.S. request to visit imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich after Washington’s reported refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists earlier in the week.
“It is especially emphasized that such sabotage, aimed at preventing normal journalistic work, will not remain unanswered,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Thursday, noting that it had summoned a “senior diplomat” from the American Embassy in Moscow to deliver the news.
“In this regard, the U.S. Embassy is informed that its request for a consular visit on May 11 this year [with] E. Gershkovich, an American citizen detained on charges of espionage, is rejected,” it added.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands inside a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Russia on April 18, 2023. (AP)
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Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the State Department for comment, though on Thursday it issued sanctions against Russia’s top intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), along with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization over the wrongful detainment of U.S. citizens abroad.
“Russia’s and Iran’s continued pattern of wrongfully detaining U.S. nationals is unacceptable,” the department said in a statement. “The United States will never stop working to secure the release of U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage and reunite them with their loved ones.”
“Today’s actions are one tool furthering that cause, and we will continue to use all authorities at our disposal to bring our people home,” it added.
The State Department has remained tight-lipped about its alleged decision to block Russian journalists from entering the country to cover a U.N. meeting at the New York headquarters earlier this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attend the G20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, India, on March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery / Pool Photo via AP)
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was anything but quiet on the matter, though, and he repeatedly condemned Washington’s move in several public addresses, warning that Moscow “will not forget and will not forgive” the decision.
“A country that calls itself the strongest, smartest, free and fair country has chickened out and done something stupid by showing what its sworn assurances about protecting freedom of speech and access to information are really worth,” Lavrov said ahead of his departure for the States on Sunday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov echoed these comments and said, “I emphasize that we will find ways to respond to this so that the Americans will remember for a long time not to do this.”
This week’s meetings in Manhattan were also tense for reasons beyond the visa restrictions.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying, listens to the verdict in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Russia on June 15, 2020. (Sofia Sandurskaya / Moscow News Agency photo via AP)
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The sister of Paul Whelan, another American locked up since 2018 on alleged espionage charges, attended the meeting so she could directly appeal the release of her brother to Lavrov.
The U.S. has decried Russia’s charges of espionage for Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich and Whelan and have said they are being “wrongfully detained” by Moscow.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
