Russia Violates International Commitments, Blinken Says

Washington D.C./12.04.23/Turan:    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia’s failure to grant consular access to wrongfully detained American reporter Evan Gershkovich “puts it, once again, in violation of international commitments it’s made," TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

“I think it sends a very strong message to people around the world to beware of even setting foot there, lest they be arbitrarily detained,”Blinken said at a news conference at the US State Department.

He went on to elaborate: “I think Russia not following through on meeting its obligations to consular access, never mind the practice of detaining people arbitrarily for political purposes, is going to do even more damage to Russia's standing around the world — a standing that has been in free-fall, particularly since its reinvasion of Ukraine last year.”

Blinken noted that he had designated Gershkovich as wrongfully detained and reiterated that he called on Russia's Sergey Lavrov to immediately grant consular access and release the detained journalist.

Speaking to reporters while leaving for a trip to Ireland Tuesday morning, President Joe Biden also called Russian's detaining Gershkovich “totally illegal,”

“We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening,” Biden said.

Blinken, in his turn, said the Administration is “engaged every single day in pressing for that access as well as pressing for Evan’s release.”

Alex Raufoglu