Russia has arrested an American reporter from the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges. Evan Gershkovich was arrested in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg by the Russian secret services FSB. He has reportedly been gathering intelligence on a Russian military industrial complex. Gershkovich faces 20 years in prison. The Wall Street Journal “strongly denies” the allegations.
Speaking to Russia’s state news agency TASS, the FSB said it had “frustrated the illegal activities (…) of Evan Gershkovich. “It has been established that Evan Gershkovich, at the request of the US side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex. The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg when he tried to obtain classified information,” the FSB said.
The Wall Street Journal strongly denies the FSB allegations and calls for “the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich.” We sympathize with Evan and his family.
Red-handed
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the arrest was “a matter for the FSB”, but said he understood Gershkovich had been “caught in the act”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova writes on her official Telegram account that “what an employee of the American edition of the Wall Street Journal did in Yekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the ‘foreign correspondent’ status, visa and journalistic accreditation has been used by foreigners in our country to cover activities that are not journalism. This isn’t the first known Westerner to be ‘taken by the hand’.
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Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
