The Russian government has rejected for a second time a request from U.S. officials to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a Moscow prison, reports William Mauldin of The Journal.
Mauldin reports, “Russia’s Foreign Ministry linked the move to a complaint that its journalists didn’t get U.S. visas to travel with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations in New York last month. The ministry had rejected an earlier request for a consular visit over the same complaint. Russian reporters aren’t behind bars in the U.S.
“The State Department said it had sought a meeting with Gershkovich on May 25. ‘We strongly object to Russia’s ongoing failure to comply with its obligations under the Consular Convention to provide us consular access to detained U.S. citizens,’ a State Department spokeswoman said. ‘Regardless of the hurdles, our team is focused on ensuring timely consular access to all U.S. nationals detained abroad.’
“U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited Gershkovich a month ago in the first access provided to U.S. officials since his detention in March.”
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