April 28, 2023

U.S.-Russia relations have always been somewhat fraught, but in the age of weak Joe Biden, they’re getting ugly.

Two incidents leaped out, the first, from The Hill:

Russia has denied a request from the United States for a consular visit to jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained last month on charges of espionage. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it rejected a U.S. request for a May 11 visit in response to the U.S. not granting visas to Russian journalists who wanted to join Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the United Nations. 

“The U.S. Embassy was informed in this connection that its request for consular access to U.S. citizen Gershkovich, detained on suspicion of espionage, on May 11 was declined,” the ministry said. 

The second, from Business Insider (hat tip: Instapundit):

mysterious Russian satellite and a confidential US military satellite appear to be engaged in a cat-and-mouse chase through space.

The Russian spacecraft, called Kosmos-2558, was launched into the same orbital plane as the US satellite, called USA-326, in August 2022 and has regularly passed close to the American spacecraft ever since.

The behavior of Kosmos-2558, and the lack of a formal explanation from Russia, has led space observers to believe that the probe is stalking USA-326. It’s at least the third satellite Russia has launched that appears to be an “inspector” — a spacecraft aiming to gather up-close data on another satellite.

So they’re spitefully leaving that poor kid in prison without so much as a U.S. consular visit, let alone contact with his family, as he awaits trial on phony, trumped-up espionage charges, all for writing critically of the Putin regime in a newspaper most Russians can’t read anyway. They don’t care if they’re cruel.