The Russian Interfax news agency reported today, Thursday, that Ivan Gershkovitch, a US citizen and reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, accusing him of spying for the US government, in light of the tensions between Washington and Moscow. mounting.
Highlights
- Russia’s Federal Security Service said Thursday that Mr. Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, adding that he was “suspected of spying for the US government.”
- The FSB said in a statement that the journalist working for the newspaper’s Moscow office “was collecting information about a Russian defense factory that constitutes a state secret” and “acting on orders from the United States,” explaining that he had been arrested. “While he was trying to get classified information.”
- The Russian government has opened criminal proceedings against Mr. Gershkovitch, who faces up to 20 years in prison, according to Interfax.
- Gershkovitch has worked at the magazine since January 2022, according to him account Twitter, and previously worked at Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times, and as a press assistant for The New York Times.
- The newspaper said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned for Mr. Gershkovitch’s safety,” and that the US Embassy in Russia had not yet responded to a request for comment.
Interesting review
Other news reporters in Russia denounced Mr Gershkovitch’s arrest on Twitter on Thursday, with Guardian reporter Pyotr Sauer calling him a “completely professional journalist” and saying he had been arrested on “completely bogus espionage charges”. “Journalism is not a crime. The allegations are absurd,” tweeted Financial Times’ Polina Ivanova, and Politico’s Eva Hartog said: “I’ve known Ivan since his first day in Russia many years ago, and it’s so much nonsense, it’s horrifying.”
main context
Mr. Gershkovitch’s arrest comes as tensions between the United States and Russia have escalated in recent months, as the Biden government has ramped up support for Ukraine and continued to implement new sanctions and measures against Russia. US President Joe Biden visited Kiev in February and said the US would help Ukraine “for as long as it takes”, criticizing Russia and President Vladimir Putin, who responded to his comments by saying that Biden and other Western leaders “intend to turn the local conflict into a phase of global confrontation”. The United States also defied Russia after a Russian fighter collided with a US drone over the Black Sea in early March, shooting down the American plane in an act the US military called “dangerous and unprofessional”. Moscow described the drone flight as a “provocation” of the United States and denounced the “unacceptable activity of the US military near our borders”, which added to tensions.
the shadow
Mr. Gershkovich’s arrest in Russia comes less than four months after WNBA player Brittney Grenier, who spent ten months in captivity in Russia, returned to the United States. Brittney Grenier was arrested in February 2022 for drug possession and trafficking due to a small amount of cannabis oil found by customs officers at a Moscow airport. The Biden administration executed a prisoner exchange deal that paid Russia the basketball player’s release in exchange for the American release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. A second American prisoner, Paul Whelan, remains in Russia after his arrest in 2018 on suspicion of espionage.
Translated article from the American magazine Forbes – Author: Allison Durky
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