Russian authorities have arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter under suspicion of spying.
According to a report from The Associated Press, this is the first time a U.S. correspondent has been detained on spying accusations since the Cold War. “Evan Gershkovich was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information, the Federal Security Service, known by the acronym FSB, said Thursday,” AP reports.
From The Associated Press:
The service, which is the top domestic security agency and main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on instructions from the American side to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitutes a state secret.”
The Journal “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the newspaper said. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
The Biden Administration responded to Gershkovich’s detainment, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying ““In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices.”
“It’s a new low in the U.S.-Russia relationship,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. The arrest of an accredited American reporter “is really setting a precedent.”
Watch footage of Gershkovich’s arrest above. More over at The Wall Street Journal:
Biden Administration Condemns Detention of Wall Street Journal Reporter https://t.co/jRPRsxZjz7
— Mark (@NJdoc) March 30, 2023
