Lawmakers and organizations across America are responding to Russia's arrest of US journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal. Here's what some of them are saying:
US Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, described Gershkovich's detention on espionage charges as a "kidnapping", telling CNN, “we are in very dangerous territory with (Putin). This is all about leverage and so now we have a human life in the balance."
“This is not the game that Putin should be playing. I think Joe Biden has shown that he’s not someone who’s going to be toyed with when it comes to these sort of things,” said Moskowitz, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, adding Gershkovich "should be released immediately.”
US Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said that this is "very typical Russian behavior."
"This is very typical Russian behavior, and that is to grab Americans, use them as leverage — in this case a reporter — make spurious allegations against them and detain them, you know, potentially for long periods of time. In this case, you know, I think we can see it in concert with their nuclear announcements — the abrogation of the treaty obligations — as a way of just ramping up pressure on the West, signaling that Moscow is going to use whatever tools it has, including essentially hostage-taking, to try deter the United States and the West from opposing its ambitions in Ukraine."
The National Press Club on Thursday called on Russia to immediately release Gershkovich, calling his detention “unjust.” The organization also urged the State Department to act.
“Evan Gershkovich is a journalist. He should be released immediately and unharmed and allowed to return to his important work,” said Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club, in a statement.