Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich arrested in Russia for alleged espionage

Russian authorities arrested the journalist on Thursday Evan Gerskovicwho works for an American newspaper The Wall Street Journalauthor 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, and is suspected of “acting on the order of the United States to collect information that constitutes a state secret about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian industrial and military complex.

A journalist would collected information about Wagner’s group, owned by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich’s last article was published by The Wall Street Journal dated March 28 under the title The Russian economy is starting to fall apart.

Gershkovich previously worked for the French news agency AFP and a Russian daily The Moscow Times. He also published in The New York Times, The Economist, MIT Technology Review, Foreign policy and Political Europeamong other things, according to its website.