After the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, who was arrested by the Russian authorities on charges of espionage, the United States authorities have already been put on “alert” regarding this fact. Now this Friday, President Joe Biden asked the government of Vladimir Putin that the correspondent be released.
According to local Russian media, Gershkovich was presenting in the Lefortovo court, in Moscow, to which Biden said this morning in an appearance to the media at the White House that “they must let him go.” At the moment, the head of state affirmed that no diplomatic reprisals will be taken for the arrest of Gershkovich. “That is not the plan at this time,” the president said.
After the news was released worldwide, the White House authorities reiterated that for the Russian government, US citizens are “military targets.” In this sense, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stressed on Thursday afternoon that the highest priority of his cabinet is the security of Americans abroad.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the warning to Americans not to travel to Russia should be heeded. According to the Russian authorities, the Lefortovo court detained the journalist in connection with a spying case, so the Russian court decided that Gershkovich should be detained in a pre-trial detention center for almost two months.
The press secretary of the Russian Presidency, Dimitro Peskov, affirmed that Gershkovich was detained “in frangati” while carrying out the alleged espionage actions. Peskov refused to give more information about it, claiming that they do not know more details of this detention.
According to Russia, Gershkovich was trying to obtain secret information related to the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex, without giving details of which corporation it was.
With information from EFE and CNN
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