Russian authorities detain Wall Street Journal writer on espionage charges

The Wall Street Journal writer was held on suspicion of spying for the United States government, according to Russia’s FSB security service on Thursday. This is the most significant public action against a foreign journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine.

According to a statement from the FSB, Evan Gershkovich, a citizen of the United States, is the subject of a criminal investigation for allegedly acquiring information on a military factory that is classified as a state secret.

It did not specify the factory’s name or location, only that it had held him when he was attempting to get sensitive information in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals. It did not offer any proof.

The FSB stated in its statement that “it has been confirmed that E. Gershkovich, operating on a mandate from the US side, was gathering material classified as a state secret regarding the operation of one of the firms of Russia’s military-industrial complex.”

Since Moscow dispatched tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year in what it dubbed a “special military operation,” Russia’s censorship regulations have become stricter.

Requests for comment from Reuters were not immediately answered by The Wall Street Journal or the American Embassy in Moscow.

According to a US diplomatic source, the embassy was unaware of the occurrence and was asking the Russian authorities for information on it.

Online, several international journalists covering Russia showed their support for Gershkovich by claiming that he was a legitimate journalist, not a spy.

An author and subject matter specialist for Russia’s security services who resides abroad, Andrei Soldatov, stated on social media:

Evan Gershkovich is a highly competent and courageous journalist, not a spy, for Christ’s sake. That (his imprisonment) is a direct attack on all foreign reporters who are still employed in Russia, and it indicates that the FSB is unrestrained.

According to the Russian publication Kommersant, Gershkovich would be flown to Moscow and detained in the city’s Lefortovo jail, an FSB pre-trial holding facility.

Formerly employed by The Moscow Times and Agence-France Presse in France, Gershkovich has been reporting on Russia since 2017. He had focused on the situation in Ukraine and Russian politics in recent months.

His cell phone was unreachable on Thursday, and the Telegram messaging app shows that he was last online at 1:28 p.m. on Wednesday. London time.