MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Any attempts by the US to put pressure on the Russian authorities and the court in the situation around Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested for espionage, are pointless, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary circulated on Wednesday.
"I emphasize that any attempts to put pressure on the Russian authorities and the court, insisting on 'special treatment' for US citizens who have violated Russian law, are pointless and futile. It is time for Washington to realize that we will not tolerate any interference in our domestic affairs and will act solely based on our own national interests," the diplomat said.
According to Zakharova, the issue of visiting Gershkovich by diplomats from the US Embassy to Russia is being considered and will be resolved in due course in accordance with consular practice and Russian law. "The status assigned to him by the American authorities makes no difference whatsoever in this case," she stressed.
The diplomat also pointed out that a clamor made around Gershkovich by US officials and Western media is an "example of blatant hypocrisy". "There is no mentioning of the fact that the US Embassy in Moscow was duly informed about Evan Gershkovich's detention. Meanwhile, our diplomats are informed with delay, or not informed at all in similar cases, in violation of the bilateral consular convention, especially if this concerns high-profile cases which are under the jurisdiction of the US Department of Justice and the FBI. In any case, access to our fellow citizens is not granted automatically, but often after lengthy coordination. This cynically ignores the American obligations arising from the above-mentioned convention," the commentary stressed.
According to the Public Relations Center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Evan Gershkovich, "acting at the behest of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex." The reporter was detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. FSB investigators opened a criminal case against the US citizen under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Espionage"). Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the journalist had been "caught red-handed." On March 30, Moscow’s Lefortovo district court ordered to arrest Gershkovich until May 29.