The Russian Federal Security Service announced the arrest in Yekaterinburg of a US citizen, The Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, suspected of espionage.
According to the intelligence service, Gershkovich “acting on instructions from the American side, he collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
The journalist was allegedly detained “while trying to obtain secret information,” the FSB reported.
A criminal case has been initiated on espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code is punishable by imprisonment for up to 20 years).
Earlier, the Ural media reported that Gershkovich fled to Yekaterinburg. On March 29, news broke that the security forces detained a man at the Bukowski Grill restaurant, pulling a sweater over his head.
PR man Yaroslav Shirshikov suggested that Gershkovich was the detainee. According to Shirshikov, he had previously accompanied an American journalist who had come there to Yekaterinburg to write an article about the attitude of local residents towards the Wagner PPK and the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine.
Source: Racurs
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