BERLIN, April 14. /TASS/. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev has highlighted the fact that Western journalists have not reacted in any way to the assassinations of Russian reporter Darya Dugina and military blogger Maxim Fomin (also known under the pen name Vladlen Tatarsky) or to the sanctions introduced against the RT TV channel and the Sputnik radio station, which is a clear show of double standards.
The diplomat made these remarks on Friday commenting on a letter sent to him by representatives from Germany’s leading media outlets with an appeal to release American reporter for the Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich, who is currently under arrest in Russia for espionage.
"A pertinent question arises, why haven’t you made such moves when at Kiev’s behest as a result of terror attacks Russian journalists Darya Dugina and Fomin were assassinated? Where are the outraged appeals defending [WikiLeaks founder Julian] Assange who dared to tell the world the truth about the crimes of the US government? We haven’t heard any words of solidarity when sanctions were introduced against Russia Today and Sputnik which broadcast an alternative point of view to Western narratives," the envoy told Russian reporters.
"We haven’t heard any indignant voices over the attempt to commit a terrorist attack against Russian journalists in Berlin in May 2022, when an explosive device was placed near their house. Why? Aren’t you concerned over this? Or the value of a journalist’s, your colleague’s life, is determined by other criteria: the country where he lives, the media outlet he works for, the views he espouses?" the diplomat added. He emphasized that "the freedom of the press is a universal and indivisible notion."
"If the representatives of respected media outlets and the foreign press as a whole speak out only in those cases when, as it seems to them, the rights of their colleagues from the ‘free’ world are being infringed upon, then at the very least this is unfair," the Russian ambassador said. "The hypocrisy here is self-evident," he added.
Letter from German media outlets
Earlier, representatives from Germany’s leading media outlets sent a letter to the Russian ambassador to Berlin with an appeal to release Gershkovich, who is in custody in Russia on espionage charges. The authors insisted that "Gershkovich has always made precise, fair and detailed reports about Russia," while the "charges of espionage brought against him are groundless and represent an act of pure political abuse of power with regard to the freedom of the press."
According to the Public Relations Center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), 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 that Gershkovich be held in custody until May 29.