Blinken Demands Russia Free US Reporter in Rare Lavrov Call

(Bloomberg) -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a rare call on Sunday to Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, calling for the immediate release of a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested last week and detained on spying charges.  

“Secretary Blinken conveyed the United States' grave concern over Russia's unacceptable detention of a US citizen journalist,” the State Department said. Russia said the call — focused on journalist Evan Gershkovich, a 31-year-old New Jersey native — had been initiated by the US. 

Lavrov told Blinken that the American was “caught red-handed while trying to obtain classified information, collecting data that constitute a state secret, under the guise of journalistic status,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. His fate “will be determined by the court,” according to the statement.   

Gershkovich is the first US journalist arrested and charged with spying by Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, signaling a further escalation of tension amid the crisis over President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago. The newspaper has denied Russia's allegations and asked for the reporter's immediate release.

Lavrov drew Blinken's attention to “the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities” taken in accordance Russian laws and “international obligations,” according to the Foreign Ministry statement, which accused the US and Western media of escalating “the hype” over the journalist's arrest. 

For his part, Blinken demanded that the Kremlin also release former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and later received a 16-year prison term.

Emma Tucker, the Wall Street Journal's editor in chief, voiced hope that the US government will formally designate Gershkovich as wrongly detained.

“It can take a long time but we're hoping, we're optimistic it'll move a bit more swiftly in this case,” she said Sunday on CBS's “Face the Nation.” She rejected Russia's allegations as “utter nonsense.”

“We haven't heard anything from him. There's been very little official information,” Tucker said. “We are hopeful that a lawyer will get to see him next week.” 

While Russia portrayed the call as fraught, the State Department said Blinken and Lavrov also discussed “the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.” 

At the United Nations, Russia is scheduled to preside over a Security Council meeting on Monday as part of the body's regular monthly presidency rotation for April — a prospect that has prompted concern and outrage by Ukraine and many of its allies.

In early March, Blinken spoke briefly with Lavrov while in India for a G-20 foreign ministers meeting. Blinken said he told Lavrov to end the “war of aggression” in Ukraine and engage in “meaningful diplomacy that can produce a just and durable peace.”

Russia scoffed at Blinken's move. Lavrov “disregarded in his usual manner” what Blinken told him about US views on current crises, which were “nothing interesting,” Lavrov's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the time.

Blinken approached Lavrov, and “we didn't push him away,” she said.

(Updates with more from Russian readout of phone call, WSJ chief editor's comments starting in fifth paragraph.)

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