The US administration claimed Monday that a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia on espionage charges has been “wrongfully detained".

The designation gives Evan Gershkovich's case more priority in the American government's chain of command and means that a State Department office will take the lead on securing his release.

The decision was made public on Monday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also denounced the detention and Russia's "repression of independent media."

“Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia,” the Department said in a statement. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.”

Evan Gershkovich was arrested last month after he was caught by Russia’s Federal Security Service while trying to obtain information classified as secret by the Russian government.

Early this month, Russian news agencies reported that Moscow had formally charged US journalist Evan Gershkovich with espionage. 

According to the FSB, Gershkovich, "acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex."

Gershkovich and his family will receive all necessary support, according to the State Department, which once more urged Russia to release him and another American detainee, Paul Whelan.

Paul Whelan, a US marine veteran serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on espionage charges, has caused a stir and is labeled as being "forgotten". Back in December, Biden had commented about the detained Marine, saying, “We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years."

Last Thursday, the US ambassador to Russia and a top Russian diplomat met to tackle the case.

In the meeting with US Ambassador Lynne T. Tracy, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov acknowledged “the serious nature of the charges” against Gershkovich, as per the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is worth noting that the Wall Street Journal citing White House officials reported this week that Washington is reportedly still trying to figure out a deal to retrieve their recently detained personnel for alleged espionage: former Marine Paul Whelan and American journalist Evan Gershkovich.

The complication is that the US aims to exchange the two American personnel with Russian prisoners they have detained: the Moscow prisoners need to be valuable enough for Russia to agree to the deal, but not too valuable so that Washington accepts releasing them. The report noted that the prisoner swap was unlikely to happen without a third-party mediator.  

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