White House condemns arrest of US reporter in Russia

The White House has strongly condemned the arrest of US reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia on charges of espionage. The Russian government's actions against US citizens are "unacceptable," said US President Joe Biden's spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, on Thursday. "We condemn in the strongest terms the arrest of Mr. Gershkovich."

Jean-Pierre expressed "deeply concerned" at the arrest of the 31-year-old Wall Street Journal journalist. Officials from the White House and the US State Department spoke to Gershkovich's employer. At the same time, the White House again called on US citizens not to travel to Russia: "US citizens who live in Russia or are traveling through Russia should leave immediately."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said he was "deeply concerned" by Gershkovich's arrest. "Whenever a US citizen is detained abroad, we seek immediate consular access and provide all reasonable assistance," the minister said. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Kremlin's continued attempts to intimidate, repress and punish journalists and voices in civil society."

The Russian secret service FSB had previously said it had stopped Gershkovich's "illegal activities". The correspondent of the Moscow office of the Wall Street Journal, who is accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, is suspected of "espionage in the interests of the American government". He is said to have collected information "about a company of the military-industrial complex" in Russia.

On Thursday afternoon, the Russian state agency TASS reported that a court in Moscow had issued an arrest warrant for Gershovich. If convicted of espionage, he faces up to 20 years in prison. The court also ordered a two-month pre-trial detention. Gershkovich will initially remain in custody until May 29, which can then be extended, the Lefortowski court said on Thursday. As Tass reported, citing police circles, the case was classified as "top secret". The journalist therefore rejected the allegations made against him.

"The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg trying to obtain classified information," the FSB said. Media had previously reported that Gershkovich had disappeared. He had therefore tried to write a report on the attitude of the population to the recruitment attempts by Wagner's private army. It was not announced when the arrest took place.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Gershkovich was caught in the act. What he did in Yekaterinburg "had nothing to do with journalism," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in the online service Telegram. "This isn't the first known westerner to have been caught in the act."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hopes that there will now be no repression of Russian journalists in the United States. "At least that shouldn't be the case, because in the case - I repeat - it's not about suspicion, but about the fact that he was caught in the act," said Peskov.

Americans are repeatedly suspected of espionage in Russia. This is likely to be the first case of a journalist officially accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry. In the wake of the Ukraine war, Russia recently tightened its stance against Western journalists. The Russian opposition spoke of a "hostage-taking".

"Putin is ready to use any method to put pressure on the West," said the team of jailed Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny. In the past, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had time and again freed Russian criminals imprisoned in the United States through exchanges with Americans convicted in Moscow.

The Wall Street Journal has meanwhile denied all allegations against its reporter and called for his release. "We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family," the newspaper said.

Gershkovich's latest report from Moscow came out this week. It was about the Russian economic downturn amid the sanctions imposed by the West over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The war has led to major tensions in relations between Russia and the United States.

The human rights organization Reporters Without Borders called the arrest of the reporter, who was born in 1991, "worrying". "Journalists must not become targets," the organization demanded. In 2022, as part of its war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian leadership once again significantly restricted freedom of expression and the press in the country.

Other foreign journalists covering Russia have shown solidarity with Gershkovich online. "Evan Gershkovich is a very good and courageous journalist, not a spy, for heaven's sake," wrote non-Russian investigative journalist and intelligence expert Andrei Soldierov. The arrest was “a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents still working in Russia. And it means the FSB has been let off leash.”

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