March 30 (UPI) — The Russian government said that it had detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of spying for the United States.
The Federal Security Service said in a statement on Thursday that Gershkovich, who works as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in Moscow, was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while “trying to obtain classified information.”
Russia’s main security agency said, “It has been proven that E. Gershkovich, acting on behalf of the American side, gathered information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Dow Jones, the company that publishes The Wall Street Journal, has been contacted by UPI for comment.
🔴Arrested in #Russia🇷🇺, the American🇺🇸 reporter Evan Gershkovich is accused of spying by the FSB. The @WSJ ’s correspondent was investigating on the military company Wagner. RSF is alarmed by what looks like retaliation: journalists must not be targeted! pic.twitter.com/urmGFNEdNz
— RSF (@RSF_inter) March 30, 2023
Reporters Without Borders, a group of journalists who fight for press freedom, tweeted that Gershkovich was arrested while looking into the Wagner mercenary group, which has troops fighting in the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
“RSF is concerned by what appears to be retaliation,” the group said. “No one should go after journalists!”
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