MOSCOW: Russian investigators have charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unidentified source.
The Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.
“Gershkovich has been charged,” Interfax quoted a source as saying. He was charged with espionage.
The Journal has denied that Gershkovich was spying and demanded the immediate release of its “trusted and dedicated reporter”.
The United States has also urged Russia to release Gershkovich, the American son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles who had settled in New Jersey. The White House has cast Moscow's claims of espionage as ridiculous.
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it was “pointless” to try to pressure Moscow over its case against Gershkovich.
“Hype around this case, which is being fanned in the United States, with the aim of pressuring Russian authorities and the court … is pointless and meaningless,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told US ambassador Lynne Tracy, according to a statement.
