A US journalist was arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, the state security service FSB said.
Evan Gershkovich, 31, was being held in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, where he was on assignment for the Wall Street Journal.
The reporter – an accredited foreign correspondent in Moscow – was detained on alleged “illegal activities” and “suspected of spying for the US government,” the FSB said.
The Journal said in a statement: “The Wall Street Journal vehemently rejects the FSB’s allegations and calls for the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.’
Gershkovich was allegedly “involved in collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex” constituting “state secrets.”
Sources confirmed to the Yekaterinburg publication It’s My City that the Wall Street Journal journalist had been arrested
PMC Wagner mercenaries pose in Popasna (file photo). Russian reports suggest that Gershkovich had gone to Yekaterinburg to write about people’s attitudes towards the war unleashed in Ukraine by Vladimir Putin and the recruitment of locals to the private military company Wagner
He was reportedly held at the Bukowski Grill restaurant last night and led to a waiting vehicle by plainclothes officers with a sweater pulled over his head
He was acting “on orders” from the US government, it said.
“An American was arrested in Yekaterinburg trying to obtain classified information,” said the FSB, which did not provide evidence to support its allegations.
The FSB is the main national security and counterintelligence agency, which is the supreme successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has prejudged Evan Gershkovich before an investigation or trial, claiming he was “caught in the act”.
“There was already a statement from the FSB,” he said.
“The only thing I can say is that, as far as we know, he was caught in the act.”
He did not explain what he meant by “in the act”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also implied that the journalist was guilty before due process.
“What an employee of the American edition of the Wall Street Journal did in Yekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism,” she said.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that ‘foreign correspondent’ status, a journalist visa and accreditation, has been used by foreigners in our country to cover up non-journalism activities.
“This is not the first known westerner to have been ‘hand grabbed’.”
Gershkovich was reportedly arrested at the Bukowski Grill restaurant last night and led to a waiting vehicle by plainclothes officers with a sweater pulled over his head.
According to Russian reports, he had traveled to Yekaterinburg to write about people’s attitudes towards the war Putin had unleashed in Ukraine and the recruitment of locals to the private military company Wagner.
There was concern for Gershkovich when he failed to contact his editors.
He has lived in Moscow for six years and works as a journalist.
He is a US citizen born to Soviet Union parents.
Local sources said Gershkovich made a trip to the city a few weeks ago and returned this week.
Before joining the Wall Street Journal, Gershkovich worked for AFP in Moscow.
He previously worked in the Russian capital as a reporter for the English-language news website The Moscow Times.
Russia has rarely leveled allegations of espionage against Western correspondents accredited in the country.
However, many accredited correspondents for Western media left the country when the war began 13 months ago, fearing it would be unsafe to stay.
Political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya suggested that Gershkovich was “taken hostage” by the FSB.
Moscow has been accused in the past of detaining foreigners – particularly Americans – for use in bartering with Russians imprisoned in the US.
Espionage convictions can carry up to 20 years in prison.
Gershkovich’s arrest comes amid bitter tensions between Moscow and Washington over fighting in Ukraine.
Several US citizens are currently in detention in Russia, and both Washington and Moscow have accused each other of carrying out politically motivated arrests.
The FSB launched criminal proceedings in January against a US citizen allegedly suspected of espionage, but did not name the person.
Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. He is being held in a penal colony south of Moscow.
Gershkovich was allegedly “involved in collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex” constituting “state secrets.”
Yekaterinburg, where Gershkovich was arrested, is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast in west-central Russia
“An American was arrested in Yekaterinburg trying to obtain classified information,” said the FSB, which did not provide evidence to support its allegations
There was concern for Gershkovich when he failed to contact his editors
Pictured: Evan Gershkovich.Moscow has been accused in the past of detaining foreigners – particularly Americans – in order to barter them for Russians imprisoned in the US
Pictured: The Bukowski Grill where Gershkovich was reportedly taken away by plainclothes officers
The US says he was a private visiting Moscow for personal reasons and has called for his release.
There have been several high-profile prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Washington over the past year.
In December, Moscow freed US basketball star Brittney Griner – arrested for bringing cannabis oil into the country – in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Russian authorities have also leveled espionage allegations against Russian journalists.
Last year Russia sentenced a respected defense reporter, Ivan Safronov, to 22 years in prison for treason.
Safronov worked for the business newspaper Kommersant and was one of Russia’s most prominent journalists covering defense.
Gershkovich’s arrest comes as western journalists face increasing restrictions in Russia.
Western media workers often report being followed, particularly when traveling outside the major metropolitan areas of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Many Russians are afraid to speak to foreign media due to tough censorship laws passed in the wake of the Ukraine offensive.
The Wagner Group, one of the subjects Gershkovich is said to have written about, is headed by Putin’s close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Wagner mercenaries are used to further Russian interests abroad, performing tasks no official military branch can be associated with, and have earned a reputation for using sheer force and brutality to achieve their goals.
Prigozhin, 61, the main financier and founder of PMC Wagner, claims his contractors are being sent across the border to help achieve the Russian president’s goal – the so-called “denazification” of Ukraine.
The group has acted as Putin’s personal gang of enforcers for years, although it has ties to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the GRU.
Founded in 2014, Wagner Contractors went to work immediately after the annexation of Crimea, arming and organizing separatist groups in Ukraine’s Donbass region and setting in motion events that culminated in Putin’s full-scale invasion of his neighbor earlier this year.
What is the Wagner group?
Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner is a mercenary group led by Russian oligarch and close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The group has acted as Putin’s personal gang of enforcers for years, although it has ties to Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the GRU.
Founded in 2014 by a sinister former lieutenant colonel in Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces, Dmitry Utkin, Wagner went straight to work after the annexation of Crimea, arming and organizing separatist groups in Ukraine’s Donbass region.
Wagner group insignia are shown
In the eight years between the annexation of Crimea and all-out war in Ukraine, Wagner mercenaries were deployed abroad to covertly further Russian interests.
They were implicated in the Russian intervention in Syria, where they helped prop up the Assad regime, and continued to operate in countries across Africa, including Mali, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Sudan.
Their goals vary by region, but tasks almost always involve bolstering the armed forces of the Kremlin’s favored regimes by supplying weapons and training, as well as providing additional security services.
In return, Russia gains access to mineral resources, investment opportunities, and geopolitical influence.
Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) is the main financier of the Wagner Group and a close ally of Russian President Putin (right)
A key part of most Wagner assignments is gaining control of the local populace and anti-regime elements – something the mercenaries have proven particularly ruthless at.
The Mercenaries have earned a reputation for violence and brutality, and will use any means necessary to achieve their goals.
The Wagner Group is now deployed in combat capacity alongside regular Russian Army soldiers in Ukraine and is credited with achieving much of Moscow’s success at the front lines.
In the fall of 2022, Prigozhin launched a mass recruitment campaign in Russian prisons, hiring hardened criminals to expand his ranks and using them en masse on suicide missions in Ukraine to gain ground with “human wave” tactics.
As of March 2023, the Wagner Group receives less support from the Russian military due to Prigozhin’s poor relationship with Russian Armed Forces Commander Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
But its fighters are still heavily involved in combat operations on the front lines in Ukraine.