MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top security agency announced Wednesday the arrest of a Wall Street Journal journalist on espionage charges.
Evan Gershkovich was arrested in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB’s successor agency, announced on Thursday.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War. His arrest came amid bitter tensions between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine.
The security service stated that Gershkovich “was acting under orders from the United States to collect information about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex, which is a state secret.”
The FSB did not say when the arrest took place. If he is convicted of espionage, Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison.
The reporter covers Russia and Ukraine as a correspondent for the Moscow bureau of the Wall Street Journal. The FSB indicated that he had an accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist.
His latest report from Moscow, published this week, focused on the slowdown of the Russian economy under Western sanctions imposed after Russian troops entered Ukraine last year.
