The arrest and pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia is causing a chain reaction: the White House is calling on American citizens who are in or traveling through Russia to leave the country immediately.
The reporter worked as a correspondent for the WSJ in Russia and was detained on charges of espionage. The White House said that “we are deeply concerned about reports of the detention of US citizen Evan Gershkovich in Russia.”
US calls on its citizens residing in or traveling through Russia to depart immediately pic.twitter.com/pWrfPtwJTx
— DEFCON (@DEFCONNEWSTV) March 30, 2023
The statement was published by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in which she added that the US government is in constant contact with both the family of journalist Evan Gershkovich and his family.
“The persecution of Russian authorities against American citizens is unacceptable. We condemn in the strongest terms the detention of Mr. Gershkovich. We also condemn the Russian government’s continued persecution and suppression of freedom of the press and journalists.” said, among other things, in a statement from the White House.
“I reiterate that American citizens should take seriously the warning from the US government not to travel to Russia. U.S. citizens residing in Russia or traveling to Russia should leave the country immediately, as the State Department continues to advise.” the White House said in a statement.
The arrest of a journalist in Russia
The FSB Public Relations Center told the Russian news agency TASS that the FSB had detained a 32-year-old US citizen on suspicion of espionage.
The journalist has been accredited with the Russian Foreign Ministry for the last 6 years, as he works as a correspondent and, according to the FSB, Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information” that constitutes a state secret about the activities of “one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex,” and they detained him “when receiving secret information.”
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that, according to his information, “it’s not about suspicions, he [Гершкович] was caught red-handed.” The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in turn, said that in Yekaterinburg Gershkovich was allegedly engaged in work that “has nothing to do with journalism.”
In the afternoon, Gershkovich was taken to the Lefortovo Court of Moscow, which decided to place him in a pre-trial detention center for two months. The meeting was held behind closed doors, journalists were not allowed to attend.
How notices CNN, Gershkovich became the first American journalist to be detained in Russia on charges of espionage since 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff of US News & World Report fell under suspicion, who was exchanged three weeks later for physicist Gennady Zakharov accused of espionage.
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