US ambassador given access to WSJ’s Gershkovich

Evan Gershkovich

The U.S. ambassador to Russia was granted access to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Monday, reports Ann Simmons of The Journal.

Simmons writes, “Lynne Tracy’s visit to Gershkovich at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison comes a little over a week after a court upheld a request from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, to extend the reporter’s detention to at least Aug. 30 while he awaits trial. Gershkovich’s lawyers had appealed the FSB’s request.

“The infrequency of consular access to Gershkovich has been a growing point of contention between Washington and Moscow. The U.S. has often accused Russia of ignoring international law in delaying or depriving jailed Americans of diplomatic access.

“Gershkovich, a 31-year-old American citizen who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, was detained by agents from the FSB while on a reporting trip in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.