White House requests release of detained Americans: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that White House officials had requested the release of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.

FILE PHOTO: Washington Post reporter Vivian Salama wears a cape reading "Free Evan", referring to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who was arrested on March 30 in Russia and subsequently charged with espionage, a charge he has denied, on the red carpet arriving for the annual White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) Dinner in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

(Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that White House officials had requested the release of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in conversations with a Kremlin official.

In an interview with a Russian TV channel, Lavrov said White House officials "sometimes call" Yury Ushakov, a presidential aide specialising in foreign affairs, and send "one and the same signal" demanding the release of the two men.

He did not say how Ushakov responded.

Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich was arrested on March on suspicion of spying, which he and his newspaper deny.

FILE PHOTO: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained in March while on a reporting trip and charged with espionage, stands behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants, while U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy and lawyers Tatyana Nozhkina and Maria Korchagina appear in a courtroom before a hearing to consider an appeal against Gershkovich's detention, in Moscow, Russia April 18, 2023. REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photo

Whelan, a former U.S. marine, was arrested in December 2018, held for 18 months in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, and jailed for 16 years in June 2020 on spying charges. He too has denied the accusations, and Washington has designated both men as "wrongfully detained".

Lavrov's deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, last week accused the United States of exerting "pressure and threats" on Moscow over the Gershkovich case, and said Russia would ignore such tactics.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)