MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. The US embassy’s request for a consular visit to detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich on May 11 has been rejected, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"It was particularly emphasized that an act of sabotage [failure to issue visas to a group of journalists who were to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on a trip to New York as members of an official delegation] aimed at hindering normal journalistic work will not remain without retaliation. In this connection, the US embassy has been informed that its request for a consular visit on May 11 this year to US citizen Gershkovich, detained on charges of spying, has been rejected," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, Lavrov's delegation encountered problems in obtaining US visas to travel to UN Security Council events due on April 24 and 25. Russian media workers were not granted visas at all. The US offered no explanation as to the reason for such a decision. Lavrov slammed US behavior as cowardly and assured the journalists that Russia "will neither forget nor forgive" this incident.

 

Gershkovich's arrest

 

According to the public relations center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Evan Gershkovich, "acting on instructions of the US side, was collecting 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. The FSB investigators opened a criminal case against him under article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (Espionage).

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Gershkovich had been detained red-handed. On March 30, the Lefortovo court in Moscow put Gershkovich in custody until May 29.