Russia’s Federal Security Service said on March 30 that it had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
Russian Federal Security
Service investigators have formally charged Evan Gershkovich
with espionage but the Wall Street Journal reporter denied the
charges and said he was working as a journalist, Russian news
agencies reported.
“Gershkovich has been charged,” Interfax quoted a source as
saying on Friday.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
TASS reported that FSB investigators had formally charged
Gershkovich with carrying out espionage in the interests of the
United States, but that Gershkovich had denied the charge.
“He categorically denied all the accusations and stated that
he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,” TASS
cited an unidentified source as saying.
The TASS source declined further comment citing the
classified nature of the case.
READ MORE: Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia on espionage charges
‘Vicious affront to a free press’
The WSJ has denied that Gershkovich was spying and demanded the immediate release of its “trusted and dedicated reporter”.
The Journal said his arrest was “a vicious affront to
a free press, and should spur outrage in all free people and
governments throughout the world”.
The Kremlin said that Gershkovich had been carrying out
espionage “under the cover” of journalism. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov has told the United States that
Gershkovich was caught red handed while trying to obtain
secrets.
The United States has urged Russia to release Gershkovich
and cast the Russian claims of espionage as ridiculous. US
President Joe Biden has called for Gershkovich’s release.
Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.
A fluent Russian speaker born to Soviet emigres and raised in New Jersey, Gershkovich moved to Moscow in late 2017 to join the English-language Moscow Times, and subsequently worked for the French national news agency Agence France-Presse.
Russia announced the start of its “special military operation” in February 2022, just as Gershkovich was in London, about to return to Russia to join the Journal’s Moscow bureau.
It was decided that he would live in London but travel to Russia frequently for reporting trips, as a correspondent accredited with the Foreign Ministry.
READ MORE: Blinken calls for immediate release of two detained Americans in Russia
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Russia formally charges WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage
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