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US ambassador visits WSJ reporter Gershkovich in Moscow prison

It was Lynne Tracy’s third visit to the reporter

NEW YORK, August 14. /TASS/. The Wall Street Journal said on Monday that US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited its reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is accused of espionage, at Moscow’s Lefortovo detention facility.

The visit took place on Monday. It was Tracy’s third visit to Gershkovich. The previous one was reported on July 3. According to the US embassy in Moscow, Gershkovich is in good health.

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 (RCC) ("Espionage"). At that time, 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. On May 23, his detention was extended for three more months.