Russia was slammed for detaining an American Journalist, whom Russian officials believe was spying for the United States.
In an official statement released by the Russia’s FSB security service on Thursday, the officials announced that it had detained a The Wall Street Journal Journalist on suspicion of spying for Washington.
According to the New York Times, the recent detainment was “the most serious public move against a foreign journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine.”
In the announcement, the FSB claimed that it had launched an investigation into the journalist and opened a criminal case for suspected espionage against U.S. national Evan Gershkovich.
The FSB also alleged that Gershkovich was gathering information that is classified as a state secret about a military factory, prompting the officials to arrest him.
In the statement, the officials claimed that “it has been established that E. Gershkovich, acting on an assignment from the American side, was gathering information classified as a state secret about the activity of one of the enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial complex.”
The news comes as Russia tightened “censorship laws since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year in what it called a “special military operation.” New York Post reported.
Amid the controversy, Reuters attempted to reach out to Wall Street Journal and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for a comment. However, they did not immediately respond to the request.
Meanwhile, the New York Post revealed that a U.S. diplomatic source revealed that “the embassy had not been informed about the incident and was seeking information from the Russian authorities about the case,” adding that “other foreign journalists covering Russia expressed support for Gershkovich online, saying he was a professional journalist, not a spy.”
In response to the arrest, Andrei Soldatov, an author and expert in Russia’s security agencies posted on social media, claiming that “Evan Gershkovich is a very good and brave journalist, not a spy, for Christ’s sake. It (his detention) is a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents who still work in Russia. And it means that the FSB is off the leash.”
