A U.S. journalist with The Wall Street Journal has been arrested in Russia on spying charges, a Russian news agency said Thursday.
Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said, according to the Interfax news agency.
The FSB accused Gershkovich of collecting “information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,” Interfax reported. It provided no evidence.
The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.
Gershkovich is a journalist covering Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union.
He was previously a reporter for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times and a news assistant at the New York Times, according to his author page on The Wall Street Journal’s website.
His most recent article, which was co-bylined, featured the headline: “Russia’s Economy Is Starting to Come Undone.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
