Russia announced on Thursday the arrest for “espionage” of an American journalist from the daily wall street journalEvan Gershkovich, an unprecedented case in the recent history of the country in the context of repression since the offensive against Ukraine.
Without substantiating this accusation, the Kremlin claimed that the reporter had been caught “in the act” and warned Washington against any form of retaliation against Russian media working in the United States.
On Thursday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had “thwarted the illegal activity of the accredited correspondent […] from the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper wall street journalUnited States citizen Evan Gershkovich,” who was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Urals.
He is “suspected of spying for the benefit of the United States” and of collecting information “on a Russian military-industrial complex company”, he added in a press release. This charge is punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison, according to article 276 of the Russian penal code.
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.
” THE wall street journal is deeply concerned for the safety of Evan Gershkovich, the daily said in a brief statement.
The NGO Reporters Without Borders said it was “alarmed” by “what appears to be a reprisal measure: journalists must not be targeted! »
Russian diplomacy said that the journalist had been caught “hand in the bag”.
“We hope there will be no” reprisals against the Russian media in the United States, added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, assuring that the American journalist had been caught in “flagrante delicto” of spying.
“Hostage”?
Independent Russian analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, who heads the R.Politik analysis center, noted that Russia has recently tightened its laws against espionage since its assault on Ukraine in February 2022.
“The problem is that the new Russian legislation […] allows anyone with an interest in military affairs, the special military operation (in Ukraine), private military groups (like Wagner), the state of the army to be imprisoned for 20 years,” writes she on Facebook.
But it also notes that the FSB was able to take the journalist “hostage” with a view to a possible exchange of prisoners.
Russian-American exchanges have taken place a few times in recent years.
Several Americans are still detained in Russia, one of whom, Paul Whelan, is serving a 16-year prison sentence for “espionage” in a case that the person concerned and Washington consider fabricated.
He was arrested in 2018 and negotiations have been ongoing for several years to have him released.
The latest exchange between Moscow and Washington took place in December when Russia handed over American basketball player Brittney Griner, detained on drug charges, in exchange for the release of arms dealer Viktor Bout who is incarcerated in the United States.
Another American currently being held 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 14 years in prison for “large-scale” cannabis trafficking.
The Russian authorities claimed to have found marijuana and hashish oil in his luggage during a check at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow.
If the Russian press and journalists critical of the Kremlin are often the target of criminal proceedings in Russia, foreign journalists have been spared, Moscow having preferred to expel correspondents and toughen accreditation rules.
Since the launch of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, however, the authorities have accelerated the repression of the opposition and independent media, generally using provisions of the criminal code punishing the fact of “discrediting the army”.
At the same time, for foreign journalists, the conditions for issuing accreditations, on which visas depend, have been tightened.
Foreign reporters are also sometimes followed by the security services during their reporting, especially outside Moscow.
In this context, many Western media have greatly reduced their presence in Russia since the entry of Russian forces into Ukraine.