The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov accused the US on Tuesday of putting “pressure” on Moscow and issuing “threats” against it over the case of jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershovitch, Russian state news agencies reported.

TASS reported that the deputy foreign minister said Moscow would ignore such tactics. He did not specify what form the alleged pressure took.

Gershkowitz was arrested in March and charged with espionage, which he and his newspaper deny. The US says he is being held wrongfully and is working to secure his release.

“Dialogue means searching for some kind of solutions. From the American side we only see attempts at pressure and threats. This is no way to have a dialogue,” Ryabkov said, according to TASS.

Russia will consider requests for consular access to Gershkovic “calmly, regardless of American attempts to exert this or that pressure,” he said.

Last month Moscow rejected the embassy’s request tof the US for US officials to visit Gershovitch after Washington refused to grant entry visas to a group of Russian journalists who were to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the United Nations in New York.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Gershovitch’s arrest – the first time since 1986 that an American journalist has been charged with espionage by Russia – is widely seen in the West as a move by Moscow to secure a bargaining chip in a possible mutual prisoner release.

Ryabkov had previously said that any exchange could only be considered after the court reached a verdict in the case.