Blinken, Lavrov hold first telephone conversation since July 2022

Blinken announced this on Twitter.

According to him, he discussed with Lavrov the detention of The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and another US citizen - Paul Whelan.

"I spoke with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today to convey our grave concern over Russia’s unacceptable detention of a U.S. citizen journalist. I called for his release and for the release of wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan," Blinken wrote.

In turn, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry declared that "the inadmissibility of Washington and the Western media inciting agitation with the intention of giving the matter a political color." Lavrov added that the future fate of the WSJ journalist will be determined by the court.

This was the first telephone conversation between Blinken and Lavrov since July 2022. However, they met in person in March 2023 at the G20 summit in India.

• On March 30, the FSB detained The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg, he was arrested in the case of espionage.

• US President Joe Biden called for the release of Evan Gershkovich.