The White House has made periodic calls to the Kremlin to demand the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, according to Russia’s foreign minister, a measure of the high-level diplomacy taking place, reports Ann Simmons of The Journal.
Simmons reports, “Sergei Lavrov said that ministerial-level contact between Moscow and Washington was now nonexistent, but said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign-affairs adviser had received calls about the Wall Street Journal reporter and the former U.S. Marine, both held in Russia.
“‘Sometimes they call from Washington—from the White House—to Yuri Ushakov,’ Lavrov told a Russian far-right television channel on Wednesday.
“Ushakov has served as an ambassador in Washington and is regarded by former and current U.S. officials as a conduit to the Russian leader.”
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