In its statement, the FSB accused Gershkovich of gathering information about a Russian military enterprise but did not cite any evidence. The Wall Street Journal forcefully denied the allegations and demanded his release.
“The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation stopped the illegal activities of the correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, who is suspected of spying for the American government,” the FSB said in the statement. “It was established that Gershkovich, acting at the request of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex. The foreign national was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to obtain classified information.”
In addition to strongly denying the accusations, the Wall Street Journal expressed deep concern for Gershkovich’s safety.
“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” the newspaper said in a statement Thursday. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. Russia’s justice system is highly politicized, and acquittals are rare. Espionage trials are typically held in secret.
Gershkovich was detained Wednesday, according to local media. He was being taken to Moscow for a court hearing and the case was being handled by the FSB’s central office, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
A Yekaterinburg news outlet, Vecherniye Vedomosti, reported that an eyewitness saw plainclothes security agents remove a person from a Yekaterinburg restaurant on Wednesday and place him in a minivan, which drove away. A sweater had been pulled over the man’s face as he was led to the van, according to the report.
Senior Russian government officials swiftly endorsed the allegations against Gershkovich, preempting judicial proceedings and suggesting without evidence that they had no doubts about the case, which appeared to be the first arrest of a foreign journalist for spying in Russia since the Cold War.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “As far as we know, he was caught red-handed. I don’t know the details.”
Pressed by reporters about whether the arrest could have negative consequences for Russian journalists working abroad, Peskov replied: “We hope that this will not happen and it should not happen. Let me repeat, it’s not a question of suspicion, it’s that he was caught red-handed.”
He declined to be more specific, adding, “No, I can’t. That’s the prerogative of the secret service. They are the ones who deal with spies.”
Asked whether the Kremlin was aware of Gershkovich’s work he responded, “Of course, we monitor the foreign media every day. We read his publications.” He offered no details about the Kremlin’s attitude toward the journalist. “Well, what kind of attitude could there be? We take into account what is published. I cannot say anything more.”
The spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, alleged without providing evidence that Gershkovich’s activities in Yekaterinburg had “nothing to do with journalism.”
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the status of a ‘foreign correspondent,’ a journalist’s visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in our country to cover up activities that are not journalism,” Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
Gershkovich’s arrest comes as relations between Washington and Moscow are increasingly toxic over Russia’s war against Ukraine. The arrest also comes just days after the Justice Department unveiled an indictment against Sergey Cherkasov, an alleged Russian spy who attended graduate school in the United States under a false Brazilian identity. Cherkasov was arrested in Brazil and is jailed there.
Russia has detained several U.S. citizens in cases that appeared to be trumped up for political leverage, including WNBA star Brittney Griner who was exchanged in December for the convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
As that exchange was being negotiated, the United States unsuccessfully sought to include Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, who was arrested in Russia, convicted of spying and sentenced to a 16-year jail term in 2020. He remains in prison there.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that it was premature to raise the question of an exchange involving Gershkovich. He said previous exchanges involved prisoners who had been convicted.
There is a precedent for the exchange of a journalist accused of spying.
In 1986, Soviet authorities arrested U.S. News & World Report correspondent Nicholas Daniloff and accused him of spying. He was allowed to leave the country, without standing trial, after the United States agreed to allow Gennady Zakharov, a Soviet citizen accused of espionage in the United States, to leave the country without a trial. Zakharov was sent back to Moscow in exchange for a group of Soviet dissidents.
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine last year, the Russian government has moved to suppress all dissent and has adopted strict laws prohibiting criticism of the Russian military.
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based advocacy group, expressed alarm that Gershkovich appeared to have been targeted in retaliation for his work.
“Journalists must not be targeted,” the organization tweeted.
In recent months, Gershkovich has written about Russia’s economy as well as attitudes to the war in Pskov, a city in western Russia, which is the home base of a paratrooper division that occupied Bucha, a Kyiv suburb where Russian soldiers were accused of atrocities.
The ChTD channel on Telegram, which is associated with the exiled Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, described Gershkovich as a “hostage.”
Natalia Abbakumova in Riga and Francesca Ebel in London, contributed to this report.
