Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in recent days in Moscow, is formally accused of spying. Russian Security Service (FSB) investigators have filed an official spying charge, reports the TASS news agency. Gershkovich “categorically denied all allegations and said he was involved in journalistic activities in Russia,” added a source to the Russian agency.
Gershkovich, 31, did not report for a few days. According to what was found, the security agents would have taken him from a steakhouse in Ekaterinburg. Yesterday the Suste organs released the news of the arrest. It is the first time since the end of the Cold War that Russia has arrested a foreign journalist accused of spying. He risks a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
According to Russian 007, the journalist “acting on instructions from the American side, collected information that constitutes a state secret about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex”. Gershkovich is in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison: at the request of investigators, he was sentenced to pre-trial detention until May 29. A Kremlin spokesman said the reporter was “caught red-handed” while the White House called for his release. “The outcry caused by the case in the United States to put pressure on the Russian authorities and the court that must decide the fate of Evan Gershkovich is futile and unnecessary,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting between the deputy foreign minister Foreign Sergei Ryabkov and US Ambassador to Moscow Lynn Tracy.
The biographical note on the WSJ website reads: “In March 2023, he was arrested in Russia while on a reporting trip and charged with espionage, making him the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War. denies the allegations.President Biden and news organizations around the world have joined the Journal in demanding Gershkovich’s immediate release. Gershkovich, the Soviet-born American son of Jewish exiles, was raised in New Jersey. He graduated from Bowdoin College, Maine, in 2014. Before joining the Journal in January 2022, Gershkovich was a reporter for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times. He was also an assistant reporter for The New York Times.” .
Source: IL Tempo

John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.