Russia’s high safety company has arrested an American reporter for the Wall Avenue Journal on espionage prices, the primary time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations because the Chilly Battle.
The Federal Safety Service mentioned Thursday that Evan Gershkovich was detained within the Ural Mountains metropolis of Yekaterinburg whereas allegedly making an attempt to acquire labeled data.
The Wall Avenue Journal mentioned it “vehemently denies the allegations” and is looking for Gershkovich’s quick launch. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his household,” the paper mentioned.
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The arrest comes amid bitter tensions between the West and Moscow over its battle in Ukraine.
Gershkovich is the primary American reporter to be arrested on espionage prices in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. Information and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. He was launched with out prices 20 days later in a swap for an worker of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI.
The FSB, which is the highest successor company to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was performing on the U.S. orders to gather details about the actions of one of many enterprises of the Russian army industrial advanced that constitutes a state secret.”
The company didn’t say when the arrest befell. Gershkovich may resist 20 years in jail if convicted of espionage.
Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and different ex-Soviet nations as a correspondent within the Wall Avenue Journal’s Moscow bureau.
The FSB famous that he had accreditation from the Russian International Ministry to work as a journalist, however Russian International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mentioned Gershkovich was utilizing his journalistic credentials as a canopy for “actions that don’t have anything to do with journalism.”
His final report from Moscow, printed earlier this week, targeted on the Russian financial system’s slowdown amid Western sanctions imposed when Russian troops invaded Ukraine final yr.
Gershkovich’s arrest follows a swap in December, during which WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed after 10 months behind bars in alternate for Russian arms seller Viktor Bout.
One other American, Paul Whelan, a Michigan company safety government, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage prices that his household and the U.S. authorities have mentioned are baseless.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
