The Russian security services (FSB) announced on Thursday the arrest for espionage of the correspondent of the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, Evan Gershkovich.
The arrest of a foreign journalist on such a charge is unprecedented in recent Russian history.
“The FSB foiled the illegal activity of the accredited correspondent (…) of the Moscow office of the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, the citizen of the United States Evan Gershkovich”, indicated the Russian federal security service in a press release. cited by Russian agencies.
He is “suspected of spying for the benefit of the United States” and of collecting information “on a Russian military-industrial complex company”.
Before joining the American daily in 2022, Mr. Gershkovich was a correspondent for AFP in Moscow and before that for the English-language newspaper “Moscow Times”. Perfectly Russian-speaking, the 31-year-old journalist is of Russian origin and his parents are settled in the United States.