USA: On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Russia had "wrongfully detained" Evan Gershkovich. The Wall Street Journal reporter was detained and accused of espionage in Ekaterinburg last month.

Journalistic work is not illegal. In a statement, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said, "We condemn the Kremlin's ongoing war against the truth and its continued repression of independent voices in Russia.

As a result of Blinken's appointment, the State Department will now involve its office that bargains for the release of Americans who have been "wrongfully detained" abroad and will give Gershkovich "all appropriate support."

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According to the Russian government, they "red-handedly" caught Gershkovich trying to get "information amounting to a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex."

He reportedly faced a charge of breaking Article 276 of the Russian penal code last Friday and could spend up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

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The US was "open to creative solutions" to free Gershkovich, a White House official was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. Several Russians accused of hacking or illegal cryptocurrency trade are currently detained in US prisons and could be offered up in exchange, even though Washington does not currently have any Russian spies in its possession. Another potential "match" was Sputnik Latvia editor Marat Kasem, who is currently detained by the Baltic nation.

Last week, a Russian lawmaker told media that he preferred to ask for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently detained in a British maximum-security facility while facing extradition to the US.

Others in the legislature suggested trading Gershkovich for Donald Trump, the former US president who is currently embroiled in a New York case he has dubbed politically motivated.

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Paul Whelan, a US citizen who was "wrongfully detained," was also called for release in Patel's statement, suggesting that Washington might want to include the former Marine in a future exchange. Whelan was famously excluded from the December prisoner swap in which Washington released Russian businessman Viktor Bout in exchange for Brittney Griner, a convicted drug trafficker and basketball star. Whelan was found guilty of espionage in 2020.