Russia Has Arrested an American Journalist for ‘Espionage’

Russian authorities have arrested an American journalist on suspicion of espionage, the country’s top security agency has confirmed.  

A statement from the Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Evan Gershkovich, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, has been “collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, which constitute a state secret,” on behalf of the United States government. 

“What that employee of The Wall Street Journal was doing in Yekaterinburg does not have any relation to journalism,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, added in a separate statement.

It is not clear when he was arrested, but Russian state media reports claim he is being held in the city of Yekaterinburg, in west-central Russia. 

Gershkovich has been covering the war from Moscow. Some of his recent reports have focused on the Wagner group as well as the vulnerable state of Russia’s economy. Local media reports have claimed witnesses saw a man being abducted out of a restaurant in the centre of Yekaterinburg with a “sweater pulled over [his] head,” on Wednesday.

He is the first reporter for a US news organisation to be arrested and accused of espionage in Russia since the Cold War. If found guilty, he could face up to 20 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal has called for his release. 

“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the publication said in a statement on Thursday. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”

A spokesperson for Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin mocked Gershkovich’s arrest by promising to “check the torture cellar in my house to see if he’s there.” The statement to the Daily Beast continued: “At first glance, I didn’t see him among the American journalists I keep there by the dozens. I can, if you want, also look at the fresh graves of foreign journalists on my house plot. But if I’m not mistaken, we didn’t bury him there either.”