MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. The Russian side has not received any information from the US that could confirm that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia for espionage, did nothing illegal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Russian TV Thursday.
"No, we have not received anything like that from Washington," he said, answering a corresponding question.
In his opinion, the situation around Gershkovich has been "heated to the maximum" by the US media and the US administration.
"Indeed, Gershkovich is a journalist, but it does not mean that he could not be fulfilling certain tasks that have nothing to do with editorial assignments," Ryabkov continued. "Gershkovich was caught red-handed. Washington officials can do nothing to put this into question."
Therefore, the US side has been conducting a media campaign and "working for sympathy," he went on.
"They are trying to exert pressure, to political and media pressure on Moscow. But there is no other way than to carry out a full investigation, to have his case reviewed by a judge, who will pronounce a corresponding verdict. I do not see any other [way]," the deputy foreign minister said.
Gershkovich case
According to the Center for Public Relations of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Gershkovich, "acting as an agent for the American side, collected top-secret data about the activity of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex." In this connection, the journalist was detained in Yekaterinburg at the end of March; criminal proceedings were initiated against him under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (Espionage). According to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Gershkovich was caught red-handed. The Lefortovo court in Moscow has sanctioned his arrest until May 29.
On April 27, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the US request for consular visit to Gershkovich on May 11 was denied. A senior diplomat of the US embassy in Moscow was summoned to the Foreign Ministry that day and presented with a note of protest over the disruption of provision of visas to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s reporter pool during his recent visit to the UN headquarters in New York.
"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.