The Detention of the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: How Putin acted on the Crimes of Hostage Affairs in the Cold War

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that it was clear he was being wrongly held by Russia.

The designation gives further backing to the assertions by the US government and the Wall Street Journal that the espionage charges against the reporter are baseless. The Biden administration will be given the ability to explore avenues like a prisoner swap to try to get Gershkovich released.

His case will be handled in the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, which has played a vital role in the release of US citizens held hostage and wrongly imprisoned around the world.

Both of the Americans who have been recently brought home from Russia – Trevor Reed and Brittney Griner – had been designated as wrongfully detained and were freed in prisoner swaps.

The US government has denied espionage charges against the man who has been in Russia for more than four years.

The editor in chief and publisher of the Wall Street Journal on Monday said they “are doing everything in our power to support Evan and his family and will continue working with the State Department and other relevant U.S. officials to push for his release.”

“He is a distinguished journalist and his arrest is an attack on a free press and it should spur outrage in all free people and governments around the world,” the statement from Emma Tucker and Almar Latour said.

“It is a violation of Russia’s obligations under our consular convention and a violation against international law,” Patel said at a State Department briefing Monday. “We have stressed the need for the Russian government to provide this access as soon as possible.”

The arrest of the journalist – the first of its kind in Russia since the Cold War – prompted the top US diplomat to make a rare call to his Russian counterpart.

That call was only the third time that Blinken has spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov since the war in Ukraine began, and all of those conversations have discussed detained US citizens. The two spoke in person for the first time since the war broke out on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meeting in India last month, and Blinken said he raised the issues of the war, Russia’s suspension of its participation in the New START nuclear agreement, and Whelan’s ongoing detention.

A WNBA Women’s Penal Colony in Russia: Janet Griner’s Case During the December 2022 Game

“Griner also describes her stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of day-to-day life in a women’s penal colony,” the announcement reads. The book’s central point is that of the personal turmoil she experienced over the course of a ten-month period, and the resilience she showed during her return to the US last December.

A former All-Star with the Phoenix Mercury and a member of the US women’s basketball team, she decided in February of 2022, to return to Russia and play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian women’s team.

The statement was put out by Alfred A Knopf, and it said that it was the beginning of an “unfatiguing period” in his life.

I went back to Russia for work the day after because I wanted to make my family proud. I am grateful to have been rescued and to be able to return to my family. Readers will hear my story and understand why I’m so thankful for the outpouring of support from people across the world.”

Russia has been a popular playing destination for top WNBA athletes in the offseason, with some earning salaries over $1 million — nearly quadruple what they can make as a base WNBA salary. Despite pleading guilty to possessing canisters with cannabis oil, a result of what she said was hasty packing, Griner still faced trial under Russian law.

According to Tuesday’s statement, the book would be “intimate and moving” and that it would show her experience with the Russian legal system as well as her wrongful detainment.

Griner, 32, is a 6-foot-9 two-time Olympic gold medalist, three-time All-American at Baylor University, a prominent advocate for pay equity for women athletes and the first openly gay athlete to reach an endorsement deal with Nike. She is the author of one previous book, “In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court,” published in 2014.