He was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg and faces up to 20 years in prison for collecting information about the Wagner group.
30 mar 2023 . Updated at 11:00 a.m.
Russian authorities arrested the journalist on Thursday Evan Gershkovichwho works for the American newspaper The Wall Street Journalby alleged espionage activities, as confirmed by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The journalist was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg and faces a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, he is suspected of “acting on orders from the United States to collect information that constitutes state secrets about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian industrial and military complex.
The journalist would been gathering 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 dated March 28 under the headline Russia’s economy is beginning to unravel.
Wagner: the army of Russian mercenaries that intends to hunt down Zelensky
C. Punch
Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian daily The Moscow Times. He has also published in The New York Times, The Economist, MIT Technology Review, Foreign Policy y Politico Europeamong other means, according to its website.