Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich
The Russian secret service, FSB has detained a correspondent for the U.S. newspaper, Wall Street Journal, for alleged espionage, according to state media.
The reporter, Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, is suspected of “espionage in the interests of the US government,’’ the FSB said on Thursday, according to the state agency TASS.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against him.
The reporter, who was detained in Yekaterinburg, was accused of collecting information considered secret on the military-industrial complex in Russia on behalf of the U.S.
The Wall Street Journal said the reporter was a U.S. citizen.
Arrests for suspected espionage were not uncommon in Russia, although this may be the first case of a journalist being detained who is officially accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russia stepped up its crackdown on Western journalists in the wake of the Ukraine war. (dpa/NAN)
