Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday held a call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to discuss Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and US citizen who was detained in Russia last week over spying allegations.
According to a State Department readout of the call, Blinken expressed the US’s “grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a US citizen journalist” and called for his “immediate release.”
According to the Russian side, Lavrov told Blinken that a Russian court will decide Gershkovich’s fate. “In light of the established evidence of the US national’s illegal activities, his future will be determined by court,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that 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 Wall Street Journal and the US government have strongly denied the Russian allegations.
In his call with Lavrov, Blinken also raised the issue of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who was arrested on spying charges in Moscow in 2018. The State Department said the two diplomats also discussed “the importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work.”
The call marks only the third time Blinken has spoken with his Russian counterpart since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The last time they talked was for a brief 10-minute chat on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in New Delhi at the beginning of March.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…”
Antony Blinken’s concern over a “journalist,” while himself jailing Assange, makes the word “hypocrisy” even more vile…even more disgusting. …Like explosive diarrhea? …No. …It’s worse. (Sarcsam alert)
Thank you. Nailed it.
It’s Blinkenstein who is disgusting.
What was a WSJ reporter doing in the Urals?
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday held a call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to discuss Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and US citizen who was detained in Russia last week over spying allegations.”
Interesting to call spying charges allegations, when Evan Gershkovich was caught red handed spying on Russia. He was spying in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the largest city in the Ural Federal District and one of Russia’s main industrial centers. This city is also the primary heart of the Russian military industrial research and manufacturing facilities. Proof positive that this guy is an American spy is how quickly Beta Boy Blinken contacted Russia about freeing him.
Just watch: Next the US will propose a swap for a Russian spy in exchange for this stupid CIA operative. More proof positive that Evan Gershkovich is an ill trained stupid CIA spy
“Evan Gershkovich was born in New York City to Russian Jewish parents who emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1979.”
Imagine that, the CIA and MI-6 have a habit of recruiting “Expats” and first generation children from emigres and inserting them into the “Old Country” as spies. This program failed in North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran in the past 20 years. When captured these spies are negotiated out of prison at high levels since they are spies.
I have traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Vladivostok almost two hundred times with no issues. Of course, when I was in Russia I was NOT there as a CIA spy.
Important safety tip: Don’t spy for the CIA or MI-6 when traveling abroad!
Enough crocodile tears from America about an inept stupid CIA spy who was not trained properly and caught. “If you can’t do the time don’t do the crime!”
The CIA has a history of profound failures which imperil American National Security. The Evan Gershkovich event is only one of many failures; for a more detailed list of failures I recommend the book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA.
Jul 22, 2007 — Tim Weiner’s engrossing, comprehensive “Legacy of Ashes” is a litany of failure, from the C.I.A.’s early days
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/books/review/Thomas-t.html
https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Ashes-History-Tim-Weiner/dp/0307389006
“Important safety tip: Don’t spy for the CIA or MI-6 when traveling abroad!” Dude! That was so funny! That was world class funny! They don’t call you “Critical Thinker” for nothing!
Lavrov should offer to trade him for Zelensky.
Or how about trading him for Assange?
Who else is a journalist still being held by the West? Oh Yes Julian Assange. The hypocrisy of it all…
Perhaps this spy story was lost by mainstream media on purpose.
Besides one unapproved spy caught, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, and two approved Ukrainian agents, Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman: How many more spies have burrowed into the American intelligence community like sand crabs at the beach without our knowledge?
Russian spy posed as a Brazilian student to get into elite John Hopkins international relations master’s program to position him close to the American security establishment, court papers say
A Russian spy posed as a Brazilian student in order to enter the U.S. and attend Johns Hopkins University’s international relations graduate program, according to a federal indictment.
The same program Alexander Vindman was enrolled in while pursuing a Ph.D. in international affairs at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, with an expected completion date in 2022
GRU operative Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 37, masqueraded as a South American student named Victor Ferreira and even applied for a job at the International Criminal Court, in order to position himself inside the American security establishment.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11920799/Russian-spy-posed-Brazilian-student-Johns-Hopkins-gain-intel-Americans-DOJ-says.html
So do you remember the Ukrainian twin brothers who worked their way up to Lt Colonel and Colonel in the US Army and both worked on the National Security Council in America?
“Alexander Semyon Vindman (né Aleksandr Semyonovich Vindman) and his identical twin brother Yevgeny were born in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union to a Jewish family.[4][10] After the death of their mother, the three-year-old twins and their older brother, Leonid, were brought to New York in December 1979 by their father, Semyon (Simon).”
Both Ukrainian spies but not prosecuted!
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman! Worked on the National Security Council. He now runs a Non-Governmental Organization joined at the hip with Zelensky!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vindman
US Army Colonel Yevgeny S. “Eugene” Vindman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Vindman
Immigrant /= “spy”