1 of 1 building of the Russian security service FSB, which announced the arrest of a Wall Street Journal journalist on March 30, 2023. — Photo: AP Building of the Russian security service FSB, which announced the arrest of a journalist for the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 2023. — Photo: AP
Russia’s security service FSB announced on Thursday (30th) that it had arrested the reporter for the American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal”, Evan Gershkovich, on suspicion of espionage.
The Kremlin accuses the US citizen Gershkovich collect information classified as state secrets about a Russian military facility. The Wall Street Journal denied the allegation and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release..
In a statement, the FSB says the journalist was arrested in the westcentral Russia city of Yekaterinburg while trying to obtain classified government information.
“It was established that E. Gershkovich, on behalf of the US side, collected information classified as state secrets about the activities of one of the enterprises of the militaryindustrial complex of Russia,” the FSB said in its statement.
The journalist is first reporter from a US media company to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War. The case comes amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine.
The FSB also said it had launched a criminal case on suspicion of espionage against Gershkovich, who writes for the newspaper.
Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said the arrest had nothing to do with the reporter’s journalistic activities. Zakharova said he performed “nonjournalistic functions” in Yekaterinburg.
“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the FSB allegations and calls for the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand behind Evan and his family,” the US newspaper said in a statement.
The newspaper and the US government declined to comment about the alleged detention until the last update of this message.
According to Portal news agency, Gershkovich, who has been writing about Russia since 2017, has also worked for The Moscow Times newspaper and French news agency AgenceFrance Presse. In recent months he has mainly reported on Russian politics and the conflict in Ukraine.
His mobile phone was not geolocated on Thursday, according to the Telegram news service it was was last online on wednesday at 13:28in Moscow time (07:29 in Brazilian time).