Europeans Weigh Confronting Russia at U.N. Over Evan Gershkovich Case

U.S. allies are considering denouncing Russia’s arrest and detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in the United Nations Security Council Monday, when Russia assumes the rotating monthly presidency of the body.

Mr. Gershkovich, 31 years old, was detained March 29 while reporting in Yekaterinburg, more than 800 miles east of Moscow. Russian authorities have accused him of espionage, which the Journal and the Biden administration deny.

Mr. Gershkovich joined the Journal in January 2022, after working as a reporter for the Moscow Times and then for Agence France-Presse. Earlier, he was a news assistant in New York for the New York Times. The Journal reporter has been held incommunicado in a jail run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and neither U.S. consular officials nor lawyers engaged by the Journal have been able to see him.

Diplomats from two of the European countries on the council said they were likely to raise Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest during Russia’s presidency, and that officials from those countries had held talks on the case.

The U.S. Mission to the U.N. didn’t say Sunday whether the U.S. would raise Mr. Gershkovich’s case at the Security Council but said it would denounce what it called “Russia’s lies.” A spokesman for the U.S. mission noted Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, and thus holds a veto over council resolutions.

“A country that flagrantly violates the U.N. Charter and invades its neighbor has no place on the U.N. Security Council,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman for the U.S. mission added that the U.S. expected Russia “to conduct itself professionally” but also that it expected Moscow to use its spot on the council “to spread disinformation and to try to distract from and attempt to justify its actions in Ukraine.”

Russia’s mission to the U.N. and its Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Mr. Gershkovich was “caught red-handed while trying to obtain secret information, collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of a journalistic status.”

On Twitter, Russia’s U.N. office said it would hold the first day of work of its presidency Monday, with its Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia scheduled to give a news conference at 12:30 p.m.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he expected Mr. Gershkovich’s detention to be raised at this week’s meetings of Alliance foreign ministers in Brussels.

“His arrest is of great concern,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “It is important to respect freedom of the press, the rights of journalists and the rights to ask questions and to do their jobs…We call on his immediate release.”

The European Union said it condemned Russia’s detention of Mr. Gershkovich and urged authorities there to deal with the case in a way that results in his release.

“This is not acceptable,” said Peter Stano, a spokesman for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body. “The collection of information and the related work is something which is a natural, vital part of the work of any journalist, and journalists need to be able to exercise their duties and their jobs without any intimidation and threats from the authorities,” he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has taken its appeal for Mr. Gershkovich’s freedom directly to Russia. On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, urging Mr. Gershkovich’s immediate release. The State Department has yet to be allowed consular access to Mr. Gershkovich, to ascertain his well-being and gather information about his circumstances.

James Jeffrey, who served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and as an envoy in Syria, said that confronting Russia during its Security Council presidency was unlikely to yield success, in part because Russian President Vladimir Putin was impervious to “shame.” Rather, he said, the U.S. would have to find a way to negotiate directly with the Russians or find a go-between to work on Washington’s behalf.

“The Security Council cannot take any legally binding action of any sort without a vote and Russia can veto the vote. That’s the end of that,” he said. “They’ve got to sit down and talk to Putin.”

The Security Council comprises five permanent members—the U.S., Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom—as well as 10 nonpermanent members who presently include Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Member states rotate the presidency each month. Mozambique led the forum in March. The U.S. will take over in August.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a violation of its territorial integrity and of the Charter of the United Nations.”

European officials have been in close touch with Washington on Mr. Gershkovich’s situation, diplomats said, and a number of European capitals, including Berlin, London and Brussels have spoken out to condemn the reporter’s detention.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia’s presidency of the Security Council showed “the total bankruptcy of such institutions.”

Although most of the Security Council members voted with the majority of the U.N. General Assembly in February for a resolution calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and withdrawal of Russian forces, China, Gabon and Mozambique abstained. Russia voted against the resolution.