The authorities of Russia They arrested this Thursday the journalist Evan Gershkovicwho works for the American newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, for alleged espionage activities, as confirmed by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
“The FSB has stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991 and a correspondent for the Moscow bureau of ‘The Wall Street Journal’, accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, on suspicion of espionage for the US government“He said, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.
Thus, it has highlighted that the journalist, who has been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg and faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, is suspected of “acting on orders from the United States to collect information that constitutes state secrets about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex”.
Journalist would have been collecting information about the Wagner Group, owned by the oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and who has sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich’s last article published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ dates from March 28 under the headline ‘Russia’s economy is beginning to unravel.’
Shortly after the announcement of the arrest, the US newspaper stressed that it is “deeply concerned for the safety of Gershkovich”, who has become the first journalist from a US newspaper to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.
For its part, the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has shown its “alarm” before what he has said that “seems a retaliatory measure”. “Journalists should not be a target”, she has outlined in a message on her account on the social network Twitter.
Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian daily ‘The Moscow Times’. Likewise, he has published in ‘The New York Times’, ‘The Economist’, ‘MIT Technology Review’, ‘Foreign Policy’ and Politico Europe, among other media, according to his website.
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