U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has formally determined that Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, has been wrongfully detained by Russia, a finding that authorizes the U.S. to negotiate on his behalf.
“Journalism is not a crime,” Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement on Monday. “We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”
Blinken had already assailed Gershkovich’s detention on espionage charges, telling reporters that “in my own mind, there’s no doubt that he’s being wrongfully detained by Russia.” But the State Department was still going through the process of making that finding official.
