Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is being held in a Russian prison on charges of espionage. He was grabbed while eating dinner in a steakhouse in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. It was his second reporting trip to the Ural mountains in a month. The Journal and the Biden White House deny the accusations.

As of Tuesday, Evan has not been granted consular access, as confirmed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. This has been a pattern with Russia for years in the detentions of Americans. Russian authorities have been slow to grant consular access in other cases of detained Americans. Evan has been detained for almost two weeks. This denies Americans proper diplomatic representation, a breach of international law.

“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, standing that has been in freefall,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Tuesday. “It sends a very strong message to people around the world to beware of even setting foot there, lest they be arbitrarily detained.”

A State Department spokeswoman said that Russia hadn’t given the U.S. a legitimate explanation for denying access to Mr. Gershkovich, and that the consular section had made multiple attempts through all available legal mechanisms. Mr. Blinken said officials would continue to insist that Russia allow consular access.

Evan was declared wrongfully detained on Monday. The declaration allows the U.S. government additional resources to push for his release. It is a commitment to secure his release. It is noted that a designation of wrongfully detained does not usually happen so quickly and not before the detainee is able to meet with American consular officials from the embassy.

I can’t help but ponder why it seems a reporter is being given special favor by the State Department. Other Americans who have been detained recently have not been given the same expedited treatment.

Last week Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Russia will allow U.S. consular access in due course according to standard Russian procedures. Last Wednesday she told reporters at a briefing, “This issue is being worked out and will be resolved taking into account the existing consular practices and our legislation.” There has been no additional comment since then.

Russian behavior violates international law and agreements. I don’t think that Russian leadership cares about such things but it’s worth noting that there are such things in place.

U.S. officials have said previously that consular access is important to be able to see firsthand how an American citizen is doing—and because it is a matter of international law. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations says that states’ consular officials have the right to visit a citizen “in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.” Both the U.S. and Russia are signatories to the accord.

The State Department also says that the U.S. has a bilateral agreement with Russia—signed in 1964 between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., ratified in 1968 and still in force—that requires timely notification of the arrest of a U.S. national, as well as consular access, “without delay.” Russia succeeded to the consular convention after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the State Department says, and both countries continue to refer to the convention in communications with each other about consular matters.

Evan is accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the country’s Foreign Ministry. He’s not just some rogue reporter who arrived in the country out of nowhere. He has been a reporter in the Moscow bureau for several years. It is encouraging that lawyers retained by Dow Jones have been able to meet with him in prison. That is according to The Wall Street Journal’s publisher, Almar Latour.

Official notification of Evan’s arrest from Russian officials was only given to the State Department over the weekend. Evan was arrested on March 29. Spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday that the U.S. has tools to hold Russia accountable. The State Department is not saying specifically what it is doing to bring Evan home.

“I’m not going to get into what measures, steps we’re taking or might take,” Mr. Blinken said Tuesday. “I can simply tell you that we are engaged every single day in pressing for that access as well as pressing for Evan’s release.”

A State Department spokeswoman said that the Russian Federation in general makes it very difficult for the embassy in Moscow to visit detained U.S. citizens, “often due to opaque and bureaucratic hurdles our embassy needs to work through to gain access.” The spokeswoman said the U.S. also faces difficulties obtaining access and confirming reports about detained American citizens in Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

It is interesting to note that when Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed were detained in Russia, both of them were granted consular access quickly. Secretary Blinken is also asking for the release of Whelan now.

That was in a different era of U.S.-Russian relations. Mr. Whelan was first visited by U.S. officials six days after his arrest on espionage charges in late 2018, and three days after it had been announced by Russia’s Federal Security Service, said his twin brother.

Mr. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and corporate-security executive from Michigan, was convicted of espionage charges in 2020 that he, his family and the U.S. government have all denied. The U.S. government has said it continues to seek his release.

Another American freed in April 2022 in a prisoner exchange, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, also received consular access in the days immediately after he was detained and accused of assaulting two police officers. That was in 2019.

Hmm. 2018 and 2019. That was during the previous administration. What changed? I think this points to the consequences of a weak American president on the world stage. The Russians aren’t afraid of Joe Biden or his State Department. When Joe Biden opines to the American press that it is “illegal” for Russia to detain Evan as it is, do we think Russia cares? No. Things were different in the last administration, though. Putin didn’t invade Ukraine and Americans being detained in Russia was granted quick consular access to embassy officials. Just something to note.