Evan Gershkovich: Russia denies jailed reporter consular visit

Russian authorities have denied detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich a consular visit, the foreign ministry in Moscow said on Thursday.

Mr Gershkovich, 31, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, was detained last month on espionage charges.

He denies the allegations. He appeared in a Moscow court on 18 April and is detained at a former KGB prison.

It comes after the US refused to grant visas to a group of Russian reporters, a move Moscow called "provocative".

The reporters were supposed to travel to New York to cover Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to the UN Security Council.

The Russian foreign ministry described the decision to deny the visas as an act of "sabotage".

It said the US had denied the visas "to impede normal journalistic work" and summoned a senior US diplomat to issue a note of protest.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will chair this particular UN Security Council meeting, so the denial of visas for Russian journalists to cover his presence there has particularly angered Moscow.

Mr Lavrov said Russia would neither forgive nor forget the US for the decision, and his deputy Sergei Ryabkov told state media that Moscow "will find formats to respond to this so that the Americans remember for a long time that such things must not be done".

"In this connection the US Embassy was informed that its request for a consular visit on 11 May to American citizen E Gershkovich, who was detained on charges of espionage activity, has been denied," the foreign ministry's statement read.

Mr Gershkovich was detained in March while working for the Wall Street Journal, and has been held in prison in Russia on spying charges.

Both Mr Gershkovich and his employer have denied the charges against him, but he could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of spying.

Russia claims he was trying to obtain classified defence information for the US government.

Reporters Without Borders said Mr Gershkovich was covering the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Yekaterinburg, about 1,600km (1,000 miles) east of Moscow.

Earlier this week, 300 journalists who have worked in Moscow called on the Russian government to release Mr Gershkovich immediately, praising his "long and impressive" record of work, adding that "journalism is not a crime".

In mid-April the US ambassador to Russia, Tracey Lynne visited him in prison, where she said he was in "good health and remains strong," she added.

The Russian foreign ministry said it was looking into "other possible steps" relating to Mr Gershkovich and would notify the US of its decision in due course.

During a hearing in Moscow earlier this month, authorities rejected his legal team's offer to free him on bail of 50 million roubles ($614,000) or put him under house arrest.