The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia refused the consular visit of Evan Hershkovich

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia rejected the request of the US Embassy for a consular visit to Evan Hershkovich, a journalist of the American edition of The Wall Street Journal, who was arrested in the case of espionage. The meeting between the diplomats and the journalist was scheduled for May 11.

The Russian ministry said that this decision is a response to the non-issuance of American visas to Russian journalists to travel to New York to cover the work of the UN Security Council. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia reported this in the demarche of the US diplomatic mission in Moscow.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, commenting on the situation with visas for journalists in his press pool, said that the Russian authorities “will not forget” and “will not forgive” what happened. The Russian state media, citing a diplomatic source, later wrote that American journalists in Russia would experience “maximum discomfort.”

The correspondent of The Wall Street Journal was detained in Yekaterinburg at the end of March. The court sent him to the Moscow SIZO. The Russian authorities say that the journalist was detained “on suspicion”, without explaining what that means. The FSB said that Hershkovich was allegedly collecting secret information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.

The journalist insists on his innocence. Details of the case are not known. On April 18, the Moscow City Court left Hershkovich under arrest and rejected the appeal.

This is the first case of the arrest of an American journalist in Russia on charges of espionage since the Cold War.

The publishers and editors-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times today published a joint full-page letter in their print editions urging the White House to support the struggle for Hershkovich’s immediate release.

“We are still shocked and outraged by the illegal arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich, who is in prison by the Russian government only for journalism. (…) Reporting is not a crime,” the newspaper’s management said in a letter to readers.

Publications note that Hershkovich’s case reflects disturbing trends when journalists are persecuted for reporting news. According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, a record number of journalists were arrested last year, and 76 mass media employees were killed. This is the highest indicator since 2018.

• Evan Hershkovich is the son of Soviet emigrants, a correspondent for one of the world’s leading publications, The Wall Street Journal.
• The Russian investigation claims that Hershkovich was collecting secret information on one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex at the behest of the United States, but it is not known which one. The Kremlin said that there were evidences against the journalist, but did not specify which ones.
• The US State Department recognized journalist Hershkovich as “unlawfully detained” by Russia. This status is equivalent to the status of a hostage – Washington previously included Russia in the list of countries in which there is a threat of seizure of US citizens by the state.
• Hershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison. Many experts assume that they want to exchange the journalist for one of the citizens of Russia, previously arrested for a similar article in Western countries.