Russia rejects US request to visit detained reporter over visa snub

MOSCOW (Reuters): Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it had rejected a request from the US embassy to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in response to Washington’s refusal to grant visas to a group of Russian journalists.

The ministry said it had summoned a senior US diplomat to hand over a formal note of protest against a decision by the United States to not grant visas to a group of Russian journalists meant to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations in New York this week.

There was no immediate comment on the Russian move from the US Embassy.

Gershkovich, the US reporter, was arrested last month and accused by Russia of espionage, a charge he has denied. The United States has designated him as wrongfully detained.

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had rejected a U.S. request to pay him a consular visit on May 11. It said it was considering other retaliatory measures against Washington over the U.N. visa snub, something which Lavrov said at the time Moscow would neither forgive not forget.

Moscow was particularly angered by the US move because it was its turn to chair the UN Security Council.

“It was particularly emphasised (to the US diplomat) that such sabotage, intended to prevent normal journalistic work, would not go unanswered,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.