Russian authorities on Thursday detained journalist Evan Gershkovich, who works for the U.S. newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, for alleged espionage activities, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has confirmed.
The FSB has detained the illegal activities of American citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991 and correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, on suspicion of espionage in favor of the U.S. government,» it said, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.
Thus, he stressed that the journalist, who has been arrested in the city of Ekaterinburg and faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, is suspected of »acting on orders from the United States to collect information that constitute state secrets on the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex».
The Russian Government has justified the arrest, claiming that Gershkovich’s work in Ekaterinburg »had nothing to do with journalism». Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denounced on Telegram that »it is not the first» time that a correspondent has taken advantage of his profession to »cover up activities that are not journalistic».
The journalist had allegedly been gathering information about the Wagner Group, owned by oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and which has sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich’s last article published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ dates from March 28 under the headline ‘Russia’s economy is starting to crumble’.
Shortly after the announcement of the arrest, the US newspaper has stressed that it is »deeply concerned about the safety of Gershkovich», who has become the first journalist from a US newspaper to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.
For its part, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed its »alarm» at what it said »looks like a retaliatory measure». »Journalists should not be a target,» it has outlined in a message on its account on the social network Twitter.
Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian daily ‘The Moscow Times’. He has also published in ‘The New York Times’, ‘The Economist’, ‘MIT Technology Review’, ‘Foreign Policy’ and Politico Europe, among other media, according to his website.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
