Russia detains Wall Street Journal reporter, accusing him of spying

Russian authorities announced on Thursday that they had arrested an American journalist, Evan Gershkovich, correspondent for the Moscow-based Wall Street Journal, accusing him of espionage.

The Federal Security Service, known by its Russian acronym F.S.B., said in a statement about Mr. Gershkovich that "under the instructions of the United States, he was collecting information on one of the enterprises of the Russian army". -industrial complex, which constitute a state secret. The F.S.B. is a successor agency to the K.G.B. from the Soviet era

ImageAn undated photo by journalist Evan Gershkovich.Credit... Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, according to Russian media, which reported the F.S.B. statement.

The US Embassy in Moscow did not immediately comment on the report. A spokeswoman for Dow Jones, the Journal's publisher, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Gershkovich has worked for the Journal in Moscow since January 2022 and previously worked in Russia for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times. Prior to that, he was a press assistant for the New York Times, based in New York.

Victoria Kim contributed reporting.