Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia on suspicion of ‘espionage’
By Sarah Dean and Anna Chernova, CNN
Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, according to Russia’s security service.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation has stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal,” Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement Thursday.
The security service said Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. He was “trying to obtain secret information” relating to “the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,” it said.
The FSB said the reporter, who is accredited by Russia’s foreign ministry, was “acting on the instructions of the American side” and “trying to obtain secret information.”
Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, according to his biography on the Wall Street Journal’s website. He previously worked for news agency Agence France-Presse, the Moscow Times and the New York Times.
“The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Gershkovich,” the US newspaper said in a statement.
— This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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