CNN
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Wall Avenue Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, the primary time a US journalist has been detained on accusations by Moscow of spying for the reason that Chilly Conflict.
“The Federal Safety Service of the Russian Federation has stopped the unlawful actions of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Avenue Journal,” Russia’s important safety service, the FSB, mentioned in a press release Thursday.
In a press release, the Wall Avenue Journal mentioned it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the quick launch of our trusted and devoted reporter, Evan Gershkovich.”
“We stand in solidarity with Evan and his household,” the US newspaper mentioned.
CNN has contacted the US State Division for remark.
The FSB mentioned Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, on the jap aspect of the Ural Mountains, and claimed he was “attempting to acquire secret data” regarding “the actions of one of many enterprises of the Russian military-industrial advanced.”
The FSB mentioned the reporter, who’s accredited by Russia’s international ministry, was “appearing on the directions of the American aspect” and “attempting to acquire secret data.”
Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and the previous Soviet Union, in keeping with his biography on the Wall Avenue Journal’s web site. He beforehand labored for information company Agence France-Presse, the Moscow Instances and the New York Instances.
Gershkovich’s arrest comes as tensions between the US and Russia are already excessive over President Vladimir Putin’s conflict in Ukraine.
Detentions of different People have led to prolonged and troublesome negations between Washington and Moscow.
US basketball star Brittney Griner, detained in February 2022 on what the US described as trumped-up drug smuggling costs, was launched in December in a prisoner swap for Russian arms vendor Viktor Bout.
Nonetheless, the US didn’t safe the discharge of one other American, Paul Whelan. Whelan, a former Marine who’s a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen, was detained at a Moscow resort in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was concerned in an intelligence operation. He was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian jail in 2020 after a trial US officers referred to as unfair.
The US has continued campaigning for his launch. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned earlier this month {that a} “critical proposal” had been put to Kremlin officers.
In one other transfer by Washington, the Justice Division final week introduced legal costs in opposition to Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, a Russian nationwide who allegedly entered America beneath a faux identification and gathered intelligence forward of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Gershkovich’s detention additionally marks a major stepping up of Russia’s curbs on the media.
Final yr, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it against the law to disseminate “faux” details about the Russian military and the invasion of Ukraine, prompting world information organizations together with CNN to quickly droop broadcasting from the nation.
Gershkovich is the primary journalist to be accused of spying by Russia since 1986, when reporter Nick Daniloff was detained on an analogous cost whereas working for the U.S. Information and World Report newspaper and journal. He spent weeks in a Russian jail earlier than the Reagan administration negotiated his launch.