Wall Street Journal journalist arrested in Russia for 'espionage'

Journalist Evan Gershkovich in a photo dated July 24, 2021. AFP - DIMITAR DILKOFF

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Without substantiating these accusations, the Kremlin claimed that the reporter had been caught "red-handed" and warned Washington against any form of retaliation against Russian media working in the United States. An unprecedented case in the recent history of the country in a context of repression since the offensive against Ukraine.

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On Thursday, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had "foiled the illegal activity of the accredited correspondent (...) from the Moscow office of the Wall Street Journal, U.S. citizen Evan Gershkovich," who was arrested in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, has an unspecified date. He is "suspected of spying for the United States" and collecting information "on a company of the Russian military-industrial complex," he added in a statement.

This charge is punishable by ten to twenty years in prison, according to Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code. According to the Ria Novosti news agency, citing the Lefortovo court in Moscow, the FSB requested his pre-trial detention.

Perfectly Russian-speaking

Before joining the American daily in 2022, Evan Gershkovich was an AFP correspondent in Moscow, and before that, the English-language Moscow Times newspaper. A perfectly Russian-speaking journalist, the 31-year-old journalist is of Russian origin and his parents are settled in the United States.

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The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for the safety" of Evan Gershkovich, the newspaper said in a brief statement. The NGO Reporters Without Borders said it was "alarmed" by "what seems to be a retaliatory measure: journalists must not be targeted!

The France said it was "worried" and called on Moscow to respect press freedom.

Russian diplomacy claimed that the journalist had been caught "red-handed". "We hope that there will not be" retaliation against the Russian media in the United States, added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, assuring that the American journalist had been caught "in flagrante delicto".

Tougher rules for the media

Several Americans are already detained in Russia, one of whom, Paul Whelan, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for "espionage" in a case that he and Washington consider fabricated. He was arrested in 2018 and negotiations have been underway for several years to secure his release.

The latest exchange between Moscow and Washington took place in December when Russia handed over US basketball player Brittney Griner, detained on drug trafficking charges, in exchange for the release of arms trafficker Victor Bout incarcerated in the United States.

Another American is currently detained in Russia, Marc Fogel, a former diplomat who worked as a teacher at an American school in Moscow. He was sentenced in June 2022 to fourteen years in prison for "large-scale" cannabis trafficking, after drugs were found in his luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

While Russian press and journalists critical of the Kremlin are often the target of criminal prosecution, foreign journalists have been spared, as Moscow has preferred to expel correspondents and tighten accreditation rules. Since the launch of the offensive against Ukraine, repression has accelerated against the opposition and independent Russian media, often using provisions in the penal code that criminalize "discrediting the army". Foreign reporters are also sometimes followed by the security services during their reporting, especially outside Moscow. In this context, many Western media have sharply reduced their presence in Russia since the entry of Russian forces into Ukraine.

(

With AFP)

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• Russia
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• Freedom of the press
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