Russia’s FSB security service detains Wall Street Journal reporter for ‘spying’

Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday it had detained a reporter for US newspaper The Wall Street Journal on suspicion of spying for Washington.

This is the most serious public move against a foreign journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Journal said the detention of US citizen Evan Gershkovich was based on false allegations.

The action will worsen fraught relations between Russia and the US, which is Ukraine’s biggest military backer and has imposed sanctions on Moscow to try to persuade it to withdraw its troops. The Kremlin shows no signs of doing so.

The FSB said in a statement it opened a criminal case against Gershkovich for suspected espionage, accusing him of gathering information about a military factory classified as a state secrets. It did not name the factory. The service said it detained the 31-year-old journalist in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg as he was trying to procure secret information. It did not give documentary or video evidence of his guilt.

“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,” said the FSB.

The Wall Street Journal said in a statement it was “deeply concerned” about Gershkovich’s safety, and that it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter”.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Gershkovich’s activities in Yekaterinburg were “not related to journalism” and it was not the first time a foreign journalism role was used as a cover for other activities.

The Kremlin said it understood Gershkovich was caught “red-handed”. Other journalists working for the US publication in Russia could remain provided they had the right credentials and were carrying out “normal journalistic activity”, it said.

The US Embassy in Moscow said it had no immediate comment. A US diplomatic source said the embassy was not informed about the incident and was seeking information from the Russian authorities.

Russia has tightened censorship laws since it invaded Ukraine on February 24 2022 in what it called a “special military operation”, bringing in jail terms for people said to have “discredited” the military.

The definition of a state secret, particularly in the military sphere, has been broadened too.

“The problem is that recently updated Russian legislation and the FSB’s interpretation of espionage today allow for the imprisonment of anyone who is simply interested in military affairs,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a Kremlin watcher and founder of the R.Politik political analysis firm.

“That is, (anyone who) writes about the war against Ukraine, private military companies, the state of affairs in the army, the equipment of troops with ammunition, military tactics and strategy,” she said.

Other foreign journalists covering Russia expressed support online for Gershkovich, saying he was a professional reporter, not a spy.

Andrei Soldatov, author and expert in Russia’s security agencies who is outside the country, said on Twitter: “Evan Gershkovich is a very good and brave journalist, not a spy. It is a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents who still work in Russia. It means that the FSB is off the leash.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch called for Gershkovich’s release.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that Gershkovich would be transported to Moscow and held in the capital’s Lefortovo prison, an FSB pre-trial detention facility.

Gershkovich, who has covered Russia since 2017, worked previously at The Moscow Times newspaper and at Agence-France Presse news agency before joining the Wall Street Journal’s Moscow bureau in January 2022.

In recent months, he covered Russian politics and the Ukraine war mainly.

Reuters