Riga The Russian domestic secret service FSB has arrested a correspondent for the renowned US newspaper “Wall Street Journal” in Yekaterinburg in the Urals. The 31-year-old reporter Evan Gershkovich is suspected of “espionage in the interests of the American government,” the FSB said on Thursday. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against him.
The Wall Street Journal confirmed the arrest, but vehemently denied the allegations and called for Gershkovich’s immediate release. The newspaper expressed its deepest concern for the safety of its reporter. If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.
According to Russian news agencies, the Moscow court in Lefortovo has now issued an arrest warrant for Gershkovich. The state news agency Interfax reported that the court had ordered pre-trial detention until May 29, 2023.
Various media reported that Gershkovich does not have access to his lawyer. The Russian news agency Tass reported that Gershkovich pleaded not guilty at the hearing.
Russian intelligence claims that Gershkovich, on behalf of the American side, collected information about the military-industrial complex in Russia, which constituted a state secret. “The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg trying to obtain classified information,” the FSB said.
Media had previously reported that the reporter had disappeared. He had researched the attitude of the population to the recruitment attempts by Wagner’s private army. The Sverdlovsk region around Yekaterinburg is considered a center of the Russian armaments industry.
“Journalists must not be the target”
Jeanne Cavelier, head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, said Gershkovich was the first foreign journalist to be arrested in Russia since Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine began. “It looks like a retaliatory measure by Russia against the US,” she told the AP news agency. “We are very alarmed because it is probably a way of intimidating any Western journalists trying to research aspects of the war on the ground in Russia.” “Journalists must not be targeted,” the organization Reporters Without Borders previously urged.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova defended the arrest on Thursday. What Gershkovich dealt with in Yekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first case where foreign correspondent status, journalist visa and accreditation of foreigners in our country are used to disguise non-journalism activity,” she claimed on her Telegram channel. Since the start of the Ukraine war, Russia has made reporting in the country increasingly difficult.
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Russian members of the opposition spoke of a “hostage-taking”. “Putin is ready to use any method to put pressure on the West,” said the team of jailed Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny.
The Russia expert and founder of the Russian think tank R.Politik, Tatiana Stanonwaja, wrote that it looks like the FSB has taken a hostage. According to Stanovaya, under current Russian legislation and interpretation of espionage, the FSB could detain anyone interested in military affairs. “Just collecting comments from experts or searching for information on the internet is enough to bring charges,” Stanovaya said.
The fact that Gershkovich acted “on the instructions of the American side” could be interpreted very broadly. “The WSJ editorial team is also the American side,” says Stanovaya. Therefore, it can be assumed that the FSB has nothing to suggest that Gershkovich worked for the secret services under the guise of a journalist. Relations between Russia and the United States, however, bring this into a “new round of confrontation,” said Stanovaya.
In the past, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had time and again freed Russian criminals imprisoned in the United States through exchanges with Americans convicted in Moscow. Most recently, in December, athlete Brittney Griner, who was jailed in Russia, was released in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor But, who was convicted of terrorism in the United States in 2011.
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Another US citizen, Paul Whelan, has been held by Russia since late 2018 on espionage charges. His family and the US government have said the allegations are unfounded.
Gershkovich is the first US media reporter to be arrested in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War. Most recently, in September 1986, Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for the news magazine “US News and World Report”, was arrested by the then Soviet secret service KGB. He was released 20 days later in exchange for an employee of the Soviet UN mission who had been arrested by the US FBI.
With agency material.
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