Russia has rejected a U.S. Embassy request for a second consular visit with jailed journalist Evan Gershkovich, saying the move is in response to Washington's refusal to issue entry visas to Russian journalists who planned to accompany Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his trip to the United Nation's session in New York this week.
In a statement on April 27, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had informed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that "its request for a consular visit on May 11 this year with U.S. citizen Gershkovich, detained on charges of spying, has been rejected."
"At this point other possible retaliation measures are being worked out, of which the U.S. side will be properly informed," the statement says.
The U.S. Embassy did not immediately comment on the statement.
The U.S. was granted an initial consular visit with Gershkovich on April 17. U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said afterward that Gershkovich was "in good health and remains strong." Tracy also reiterated the U.S. call for his immediate release.
Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Russia in late March on allegations of espionage that he, his publication, and U.S. officials have strongly denied.
With relations between the two superpowers already around their worst since the end of the Cold War due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the situation worsened when reporters from Russia were not granted visas to cover Lavrov's visit to the UN, where he was chairing a Security Council meeting this week.
Lavrov said Moscow "will not forgive" Washington for denying the visas.
The U.S. State Department has not commented on Russia's claim over the visa denials, saying it could not speak on specific visa requests because of privacy rules.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on March 30 it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against him for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
He was then placed in pretrial detention until at least May 29 in Moscow's Lefortovo prison, a notorious institution dating back to tsarist times. Seen as a symbol of Soviet repression, Lefortovo is where Russia holds most suspects in espionage cases.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.
The U.S. State Department on April 10 designated Gershkovich as "wrongfully detained" by Russia and called for his immediate release, as have international journalist organizations. U.S. President Joe Biden also called on Russia to release him.
The Kremlin has said Gershkovich was carrying out espionage "under the cover" of journalism. Lavrov has told the United States that Gershkovich was caught red-handed while trying to obtain secrets.
Hired by The Wall Street Journal shortly before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last year, Gershkovich had been reporting on Russia for more than five years at the time of his arrest. The 31-year-old is a fluent Russian speaker, the son of emigres who left the Soviet Union for the United States during the Cold War.