The journalist of 'The Wall Street Journal' Evan Gershkovich arrested in Russia for alleged espionage

MADRID, 30 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Russian authorities have arrested this Thursday the journalist Evan Gershkovich, who works for the American newspaper 'The Wall Street Journal', for alleged espionage activities, as confirmed by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

"The FSB has arrested the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991 and a correspondent for the Moscow bureau of The Wall Street Journal, accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, on suspicion of espionage for the US government. ", has said.

Thus, it has highlighted that the journalist, who has been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg and faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, is suspected of "acting on orders from the United States to collect information that constitutes state secrets about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex".

The journalist would have been collecting information about the Wagner Group, owned by the oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and who has sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich's last article published by 'The Wall Street Journal' dates from March 28 under the headline 'Russia's economy is beginning to unravel'.

Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian newspaper 'The Moscow Times'. Likewise, he has published in 'The New York Times', 'The Economist', 'MIT Technology Review', 'Foreign Policy' and Politico Europe, among other media, according to his website.