US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today, in a rare face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, called for the immediate release of a recently imprisoned American journalist.
Blinken has conveyed the US government’s “great concern” about the unacceptable detention of the American reporter and has called for his immediate release, the State Department said. He called on Russia to release long-detained US citizen Paul Whelan.
Since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, phone calls between the two foreign ministers have become rare.
Lavrov refers to court
The Russian Foreign Ministry said after the meeting that Lavrov asked Blinken to respect the decisions of the Russian authorities, which are in accordance with the legislation and Russia’s international obligations. The court will decide the fate of the reporter, Lavrov said.