Russia arrests American reporter from Wall Street Journal on espionage charges

Russia's top security agency has arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War.

The Federal Security Service (FSB), thedomestic security and counterintelligence agency that is thesuccessor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, said Thursday that Evan Gershkovich, 31, was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information.

Moscow's Lefortovo district court on Thursday ordered Gershkovich to be held in pre-trial detention until at least May 29, the news agency Interfax reported.

The security service alleged that Gershkovich "was acting on the U.S. orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex that constitutes a state secret."

The FSB didn't say when the arrest took place. Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage. Gershkovich covers Russia and Ukraine as a correspondent in the Wall Street Journal's Moscow bureau.

The FSB noted that he had accreditation from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, but Russian Foreign Ministry spokespersonMaria Zakharova said Gershkovich was using his journalistic credentials as a cover for "activities that have nothing to do with journalism."

U.S. seeks access to Gershkovich

In Washington, the State Department said in a statement that it was "deeply concerned over Russia's widely reported detention of a U.S. citizen journalist," and reiterated its warnings for U.S. citizens inside Russia, who are advised to depart immediately.

"In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin's continued attempts to intimidate, repress and punish journalists and civil society voices," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the statement.

Canada, too, put a travel advisory in place shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, urging citizens to avoid all travel in Russia.

The White House through Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned "the Russian government's continued targeting and repression of journalistsand freedom of the press" in a statement. It said the administration is in touch with Gershkovich's family and that the State Department is contacting Russian counterparts to gain consular access to the reporter.

The Wall Street Journal said it "vehemently denies the allegations" and is seeking Gershkovich's immediate release.

"We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family," the paper said.

Jeanne Cavelier, of the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, said Gershkovich's arrest "looks like a retaliation measure of Russia against the United States."

"We are very alarmed because it is probably a way to intimidate all Western journalists that are trying to investigate aspects of the war on the ground in Russia," said Cavelier, head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk at the Paris-based group.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "It is not about a suspicion, it is about the fact that he was caught red-handed."

Gershkovich speaks fluent Russian and had previously worked forAgence France-Presse and The New York Times. His last report from Moscow, published earlier this week, focused on the Russian economy's slowdown amid Western sanctions imposed when Russian troops entered Ukraine last year.

Russian journalist Dmitry Kolezev said on the messaging app Telegram that he spoke to Gershkovich before his trip to Yekaterinburg.

"He was preparing for the usual, albeit rather dangerous in current conditions, journalist work," Kolezev wrote. He said Gershkovich asked him for the contacts of local journalists and officials in the area as he prepared to arrange interviews.

Canada's foreign affairs minister condemned the arrest. "The Russian regime continues to spread disinformation, jail critics, and silence any who speak against Putin's war crimes,"Mlanie Jolysaidon Twitter.

"Attempts to prevent media from speaking truth to power must stop."

Independent media crackdown

Gershkovich is the first reporter for an American news outlet to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War. His arrest comes amid the bitter tensions between Moscow and Washington over the fighting in Ukraine.

Soon after the invasion, Russia clamped down on domestic and foreign media outlets, blocking the websites ofthe BBC, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, among others.

WATCH | American journalist's lawyer barred from Moscow court hearing:

American reporter arrested in Russia on espionage charges

1 year ago

Duration 2:05

American journalist Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, has been detained in Russia on charges of spying for the U.S. government. His employer and fellow journalists are appalled by the charges, and U.S. officials say they are deeply concerned.

In May, CBC News journalists were expelled from Russia after a 44-year presence in Moscow.

Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, whose editor,Dmitry Muratov, was a co-winner of 2021's Nobel Peace Prize, was also shuttered.

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. He was released without charges 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union's United Nations mission who was arrested by the FBI.

Bill Browder, the investment fund manager who has worked to expose Russian corruption after the arrest and prison death of his colleague Sergei Magnitsky, characterized the arrest of Gershkovich on Thursday as "[Vladimir] Putin's standard playbook."

Ottawa-born Paul Whelan, who holds Canadian, American and Irish citizenship, is in his fourth year of a 16-year sentence on espionage charges that he disputes. Whelan was accused of receiving a thumb drive of classified information while travelling in Russia.

Russia in December released pro basketball player Brittney Griner, arrested just days before the Ukraine invasion and sentenced to prisonfor drug possession. Griner came back home to the U.S. as a part of a prisoner swap that saw notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout released from American custody after several years.

The Journal in its long history has seen reporters detained overseas. Gerald Sieb, until recently the newspaper's Washington bureau chief, was interrogated in Iran for several days in 1987 before being released.

Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed in 2002 after being abducted by Islamist extremists.