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LONDON – Russia’s FSB safety service mentioned on Thursday it had detained a reporter for The Wall Avenue Journal on suspicion of spying for Washington, probably the most severe public transfer towards a international journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The FSB mentioned in an announcement that it had opened a prison case for suspected espionage towards U.S. nationwide Evan Gershkovich, accusing him of gathering data categorised as a state secret a few army manufacturing unit.
It didn’t title the manufacturing unit or say the place it was, however mentioned it had detained him within the Urals metropolis of Yekaterinburg as he was making an attempt to obtain secret data.
It supplied no proof.
“It has been established that E. Gershkovich, appearing on an task from the American aspect, was gathering data categorised as a state secret concerning the exercise of one of many enterprises of Russia’s military-industrial advanced,” the FSB mentioned in its assertion.
Russia has tightened censorship legal guidelines because it despatched tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 final 12 months in what it referred to as a “particular army operation.”
The Wall Avenue Journal and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.
A U.S. diplomatic supply mentioned the embassy had not been knowledgeable concerning the incident and was searching for data from the Russian authorities concerning the case.
Different international journalists overlaying Russia expressed assist for Gershkovich on-line, saying he was an expert journalist, not a spy.
Andrei Soldatov, an creator and skilled in Russia’s safety businesses who’s outdoors the nation, mentioned on social media:
“Evan Gershkovich is an excellent and courageous journalist, not a spy, for Christ’s sake. It (his detention) is a frontal assault on all international correspondents who nonetheless work in Russia. And it signifies that the FSB is off the leash.”
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that Gershkovich could be transported to Moscow and held within the capital’s Lefortovo jail, an FSB pre-trial detention facility.
Gershkovich, who has lined Russia since 2017, beforehand labored at The Moscow Occasions newspaper and at France’s Agence-France Presse information company.
In current months, he had primarily lined Russian politics and the battle in Ukraine.
His cell phone couldn’t be reached on Thursday and, in line with the Telegram messenger service, he was final on-line on Wednesday at 1:28 p.m. Moscow time.
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