Russia’s FSB said on Thursday it had detained a reporter for the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal Reporter on suspicion of spying for Washington. This is considered a major step against a foreign journalist after Russia attacked Ukraine.
The FSB said in a statement that it had opened a criminal case against US citizen Ivan Gershkovich for suspected espionage. The agency had accused Ivan of collecting information about a military factory. The FSB did not name the factory, but said it had detained it in the city of Ural because it was trying to obtain classified information.
The FSB said in its statement that it has been learned that E. Gershkovich was working on an assignment from the US. The Russian agency said the journalist was trying to collect classified information for the US. Explain that Russia has tightened censorship laws. After sending thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24 last year, Russia called it a “special military operation” and imposed censorship.
The Wall Street Journal and the US embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. A US diplomatic source said the embassy had not been informed of the incident and was seeking information from Russian officials about the matter. Other foreign journalists covering Russia expressed online support for Gershkovitch, saying he was a professional journalist, not a spy.
