Russia Arrests WSJ Reporter For Supposed Espionage

March 30, 2023 Russia, United States

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Russia’s main security agency said it had detained a Wall Street Journal reporter for what it described as espionage. The Federal Security Service said Thursday it had detained Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg.

The FSB said in a statement that Mr. Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the Journal said. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”

The New York Times reports:



Mr. Gershkovich has worked for The Journal in Moscow since January 2022 and previously reported in Russia for Agence France-Presse and for The Moscow Times. Before that, he was a news assistant for The New York Times, based in New York.

No Western journalist has been tried on espionage charges in Russia in recent years. The arrest of Mr. Gershkovich represented a significant escalation in Moscow’s hostilities toward foreign news organizations, many of which sharply curtailed their activities in Russia last year after harsh new laws in effect outlawed some forms of independent reporting after the invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison under Russia’s criminal code. Espionage trials in Russia can take months and are typically conducted in secret.

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