Russian news agencies have reported that Russia has formally charged Ivan Gershkovitch, the detained Wall Street Journal journalist, with espionage.
The state-run Tass news agency reported on Friday that the American journalist had denied the accusation.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals and opened a spy case on the 31-year-old to gather what happened. He said it was state intelligence. Secrets of the military industrial complex.
“The FSB investigators accused Gershkovich of espionage for his country,” TASS said, citing a law enforcement source.
“He categorically denied all the charges and said he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,” she added.
Another Russian news agency, Interfax, reported, citing an unidentified source.
The Wall Street Journal denied that Gershkovich was spying and demanded the immediate release of its “trusted and loyal reporter”.
The United States urged Russia to release Gershkovitch and called the allegations of Russian espionage absurd.
The White House said Thursday that Russia’s refusal to grant consular access to Gershkovich was “unforgivable.”
“We have to move from the consulate to Evan,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“unnecessary” pressure
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the same day that it was “futile” to try to pressure Moscow in its case against Gershkovitch.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told US Ambassador Lynn Tracy, according to a statement: “The uproar around this issue, which is being fanned in the United States, with the aim of putting pressure on the Russian authorities and the court … is nonsense and meaningless.”
The statement added that “he was caught in the act of trying to obtain confidential information, using his press status as a cover for illegal actions, and describing them as espionage.”
Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 mi) east of Moscow, then taken to the capital and held until 29 May pending trial.
The journalist’s arrest has angered the West and is seen as a dangerous escalation in Moscow’s suppression of the media.
