Russia detains a Wall Street Journal reporter, accusing him of espionage.

NYT WORLD: Russia detains a Wall Street Journal reporter, accusing him of espionage.
By Daniel Victor and Michael M. Grynbaum
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: March 30, 2023 at 03:00AM

The newspaper said it “vehemently denies the allegations” against Evan Gershkovich, an American, and called for his immediate release.

The Russian authorities said on Thursday that they had detained an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal and accused him of espionage, marking a new escalation in Moscow’s tensions with the United States and with foreign media organizations since the start of its invasion of Ukraine.
The journalist, Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent based in Moscow, is believed to be the first American reporter to be held as an accused spy in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. His detention comes as relations between Russia and the United States continue to deteriorate, with Washington leading a coalition of nations supporting Ukraine’s military defense and pushing for Moscow’s further diplomatic and economic isolation.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., said in a statement that Mr. Gershkovich “is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government” and had been detained in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains. The F.S.B. is a successor agency to the Soviet-era K.G.B.

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/europe/russia-wsj-reporter-detained-gershkovich.html

Russia’s FSB security service detains US reporter on spying charges