McConnell, Schumer Condemn Detention of U.S. Journalist in Russia

Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader ( D – N. Y .) in opposition to Russia’s’s detention of an American journalist, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell( R-Ky. ).

In a joint statement released on April 7, the two stated that they” strongly condemn the wrongful incarceration of U.S. citizen and Wall Street Journal columnist Evan Gershkovich and demand the immediate release of this worldwide known and respected independent journalist.”

They join President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Canada Rishi Sunak and Justin Trudeau in calling for Gershkovich’s’s distribution.

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted Mr. Gershkovich permission to practice journalism in Russia. The announcement from Schumer and McConnell continues,” Since his arrest, Russian officials have failed to present any plausible evidence to support their fabricated prices.”

Media is not a crime, there should be no misunderstanding.

The Federal Security Service ( FSB ) of Russia detained Gershkovich on March 29 in Yekaterinburg, an eastern city. The FSB is the heir to the KGB of the Russian period.

According to the FSB, he” acted at the behest of the American hand” to get” information constituting a state secret about the activities of an organisation within Russia’s’s military-industrial diverse.”

Since the Cold War, his imprisonment represents the very hold of an American journalist in Russia on espionage charges.

According to Russian media, Gershkovich was officially charged with spying on April 7 on behalf of the US. They claim that he has categorically refuted all charges. If found guilty, he may receive a two-ten year prison term.

Gershkovich still hasn’t spoken to the American president, according to Schumer and McConnell’s’s speech. They described that circumstance as being against” standard political practice” and” most in violation of international law.”

According to the Russian news agency Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed the diarist was” caught red-handed.”

About Gershkovich

Russian Israeli families who fled the Soviet Union in 1979 gave birth to Gershkovich, 31, in the United States.

According to his account on outlet’s’s website, he started working for the Wall Street Journal in January 2022.

According to his account, he has already worked for Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times, and The New York Times.

According to the Russian RT news service, Gershkovich actually be traded for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to Russian State Duma Deputy Sergey Obuhovkov, a Soviet Communist Party member.

Blinken demanded the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a Michigan business security executive who Russia had imprisoned on espionage charges in 2018, according to the Department of State on April 2. Sergey Lavrov was the Russian Foreign Minister.

The accusations of detection are refuted by the US and Whelan’s’s community.

Whelan was not a part of the 2022 prisoner exchange that resulted in the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who had been held and found guilty of drug charges, in exchange for Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who served as the model for Nicolas Cage’s’s character in” Lord of War” in 2005.

In light of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, tensions between the United States and Russia are still higher.

” Americans should follow the U.S. government’s’s warning against visiting Russia ,” he said. As the State Department continues to ask, U.S. persons living or traveling in Russia may leave immediately, according to National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby on March 30.