The President of the United States, Joe Biden, telephoned on Tuesday the family of the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia since the end of March and accused of espionage, informed the White House.
The president made the call aboard the presidential plane Air Force One, taking advantage of the trip to arrive in the British province of Northern Ireland, where he will begin a four-day tour that will also take him to the Republic of Ireland.
In statements to the press on board the presidential plane, John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, explained that Biden feels “very grateful” for the time dedicated to him by Gershkovich’s family, but declined to give more details out of respect for the relatives.
The U.S. State Department on Monday declared Gershkovich’s arrest a case of “arbitrary detention,” allowing the federal government to redouble resources to secure his release.
Gershkovich was arrested on March 30 in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Urals, and charged by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, formerly KGB) with espionage, a charge for which he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
The journalist had been covering Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet republics for The Wall Street Journal since January 2022.
The last arrest of a U.S. journalist for espionage took place in 1986, at the height of Perestroika, and involved Nicholas Daniloff, who was exchanged for a Russian prisoner three weeks later.
Both the White House and The Wall Street Journal have denied the Russian security forces’ accusations against their correspondent and have demanded his immediate release.