The U.S. embassy in Moscow said on Friday that Ambassador Lynne Tracy had visited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at the Moscow prison where he is being held on spying charges. Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip at the end of March in the city of Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Western reporter to be held on espionage charges in Russia since the Soviet era. Tracy's visit comes a day after a Moscow court upheld a ruling to keep Gershkovich in custody at least until Jan. 30, pending a trial. The U.S. State Department responded by saying Russia had so far refused all of its offers for the release of the two American citizens and urged Putin to negotiate in good faith. Gershkovich previously worked for The Moscow Times, and then for the French news agency Agence France Presse, before joining WSJ.

Source: Wall Street Journal December 15, 2023 16:08 UTC