On Thursday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) detained a Wall Street Journal reporter and U.S. citizen, accusing him of espionage.
Evan Gershkovich, a member of the Journal‘s Moscow bureau, is accredited to report in Russia by the State Ministry but was detained in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg. The FSB said in a statement that the reporter, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Gershkovich is believed to be the first American reporter to be held on the accusation of espionage since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Journal demanded his immediate release in a statement.
"The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family,” the statement read.
The detainment was not a unilateral action by the FSB, with the Kremlin and the Foreign Ministry quick to endorse the move.
In a daily call with reporters, as quoted in the New York Times, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov said “we’re not talking about suspicions. He was caught red-handed.”
"What an employee of the American publication the Wall Street Journal was doing in Yekaterinburg has nothing to do with journalism," explained Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Just on Wednesday, Gershkovich posted an article with fellow Journal reporter Georgi Kantchev covering the economic situation in Russia, entitled “Russia’s Economy is starting to Come Undone.” For a period after it was published, it was the most widely-read article on the Journal‘s page.
“As the war continues into its second year and Western sanctions bite harder, Russia's government revenue is being squeezed and its economy has shifted to a lower-growth trajectory, likely for the long term,” the article read.
Gershkovich, 31, is a graduate of Bowdoin College. He was previously a reporter for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times and a news assistant at the New York Times.
Putin has launched an internal war on Russian dissidents like opposition leader Alexei Navalny and foreign and domestic news agencies that don’t parrot propaganda. Reporting in Russia for even major international publications like the Journal has consequently become difficult.
Putin has also sought to codify laws to counter “fake news,” or any information that might be damaging to the state.
One change to the criminal code instituted last year says anyone found guilty of knowingly disseminating false information and data about the use of Russia's armed forces would be punished by a prison sentence of up to 15 years or a fine of up to 1.5 million rubles, equivalent to about $14,000, the Journal reported last year. Reporting data on Russia's military casualties not provided by the Russian Defense Ministry would also be considered a violation. Russian sources differ markedly on the number dead compared to Ukrainian and international sources.
Social-media platforms such as Facebook have also been restricted.
Several news agencies like the BBC and Bloomberg decided to suspend reporting in Russia as a result. Others who have remained have faced increasing pressure and the detainment of Gershkovich is likely to be a culminating point.
Russia has detained other U.S. citizens like former WNBA star Brittney Griner and Marine Paul Whelan. Griner, who was arrested on a minor drug charge, was released in a prisoner swap that freed a notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktour Bout. Whelan was also charged on what the U.S. considers to be sham espionage charges and he was later sentenced to 16 years. He is still languishing in a Russian prison.
Conversely, Russia has granted asylum to Edward Snowden, accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of espionage, among other things.
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