<p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally declared on Sunday that Russian authorities had wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, giving federal officials additional resources to secure his release.</p>
<p>Blinken announced the official classification involving Gershkovich, who was arrested last week on accusations of espionage by Russia&#8217;s Federal Security Service (FSB). The category gives control to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department to handle the situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Journalism is not a crime,&#8221; Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesperson, told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/us-designates-evan-gershkovich-wrongfully-detained-russia-rcna79038?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">NBC</a> in a statement. &#8220;We condemn the Kremlin&#8217;s continued repression of independent voices in Russia and its ongoing war against the truth.&#8221;</p>
<p>Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week, calling for the &#8220;immediate release&#8221; of Gershkovich, and Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran detained in the country since 2018.</p>
<p>On March 29, in the first arrest of an American journalist on espionage charges since 1986, Gershokovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, located in the Ural Mountains, while on a reporting trip, according to The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Ministry claimed the United States was politicizing Gershokovich&#8217;s detention, saying, &#8220;it is unacceptable for officials in Washington and the western media to whip up a stir with the clear intention of giving this case a political colouring.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Blinken&#8217;s attention was drawn to the need to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, taken in accordance with the law and international obligations of the Russian Federation,&#8221; the foreign ministry <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/us-urges-release-wall-street-085939037.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAF28FQSuwVoAZu1ZXRRmIgRR_5bFYj_e_tLN-f7qe9xXXF7I5ZrQw9bCwIhpXyAsfe5xKg9OCg7SGa8Ztq5sExAGrrO6vAKrYD1eIdpLIMjPpwpsYH--mPz6Q6FbFrzIdf7a--bewWlVZx3hCtQSDaS8Vr27BpG7N6-ECa1Svwt2">said</a>.</p>
<p>Russia has yet to provide any evidence for the allegations against Gershkovich but claimed he was &#8220;caught red-handed while trying to obtain secret information, collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of a journalistic status.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to The New York Times, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal &#8220;vehemently denies&#8221; the allegations, as did Gershkovich in a court appearance last week.</p>
<p>Whelan is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in a penal colony on espionage charges, accusations which Whelan denies and the U.S. government says are baseless.</p>
<p>President Joe Biden recently told reporters that his message to Russia regarding Gershkovich was &#8220;let him go.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Ben Whitehead contributed to this report.</em></p>

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