US journalist from Wall Street Journal is arrested in Russia on suspicion of spying
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A US journalist has been detained in Russia suspected of espionage, the FSB state security service said.
Evan Gershkovich, 31, was held in Yekaterinburg in the Urals where he was on an assignment for The Wall Street Journal.
The reporter – an accredited foreign correspondent in Moscow – was held over alleged ‘illegal activities’ and was ‘suspected of espionage for the US government’, said the FSB.
He was allegedly ‘engaged in the collection of information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex’ which constitute ‘state secrets’.
He was ‘acting on instructions’ from the US government, it was alleged.

Evan Gershkovich, 31, was held in Yekaterinburg in the Urals where he was on an assignment for The Wall Street Journal

Sources confirmed to Yekaterinburg publication It’s My City that the journalist for The Wall Street Journal had been detained

PMC Wagner mercenaries pose at Popasna (file photo). Russian reports suggest Gershkovich had gone to Yekaterinburg to write about the attitude of people to the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, and the recruitment of locals for the Wagner private military company
‘While trying to obtain secret information, an American was detained in Yekaterinburg,’ said the FSB which provided no evidence for its accusations.
Reports suggest he was held last night at the Bukowski Grill restaurant and led by plain-clothed officers to a waiting vehicle with a sweater pulled over his head.
Russian reports suggest he had gone to Yekaterinburg to write about the attitude of people to the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, and the recruitment of locals for the Wagner private military company.
There was concern for Gershkovich when he failed to make contact with his editorial office.
He has lived in Moscow for six years, working as a journalist.
He is a US citizen born to parents from the Soviet Union.
Local sources said Gershkovich had made a trip to the city several weeks ago and had returned this week.
Russia has seldom made allegations of espionage against Western correspondents accredited to the country.
However, many accredited correspondents from Western media outlets left the country when the war started 13 months ago amid concerns it was unsafe to remain.
Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya suggested Gershkovich had been ‘taken hostage’ by the FSB.
Moscow has been accused in the past of arresting foreigners – especially Americans – to use in barter exchanges for Russians detained in the US.
Spying convictions can lead to up to 20-year jail sentences.

The reporter – an accredited foreign correspondent in Moscow – was held over alleged ‘illegal activities’ and was ‘suspected of espionage for the US government’, said the FSB

Gershkovich was allegedly ‘engaged in the collection of information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex’ which constitute ‘state secrets’

Gershkovich was ‘acting on instructions’ from the US government, it was alleged

‘While trying to obtain secret information, an American was detained in Yekaterinburg,’ said the FSB which provided no evidence for its accusations

There was concern for Gershkovich when he failed to make contact with his editorial office

Reports suggest he was held last night at the Bukowski Grill restaurant and led by plain-clothed officers to a waiting vehicle with a sweater pulled over his head

Pictured: The Bukowski Grill, where Gershkovich is reported to have been taken away by plain-clothed officers
The Wagner Group is led by close Putin ally 61-year-old Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Wagner mercenaries are deployed to further Russian interests abroad by doing the jobs that no official military branch could be associated with and have earned a reputation for using sheer force and brutality to achieve their goals.
Prigozhin, the chief financier and founder of PMC Wagner, claims his contractors are deployed across the border to help achieve the Russian president’s goal – the so-called ‘denazification’ of Ukraine.
The group has for years acted as Putin’s personal band of enforcers, though it maintains connections with Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.
Founded in 2014, Wagner contractors got straight to work following the annexation of Crimea, arming and organising separatist groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine and setting in motion events which culminated earlier this year in Putin’s full-scale invasion of his neighbor.
Source: DailyMail UK