In Yekaterinburg, The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained on suspicion of espionage, TASS reports citing the FSB. He allegedly was collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex, which constitute a state secret, on instructions from the United States.
In Yekaterinburg, Gershkovich prepared a material on the attitude of Russians towards Wagner PMCs. He interviewed a local resident Yaroslav Shirshikov: he accompanied him around the city and introduced him to other heroes of the material. According to the Yekaterinburg resident, Gershkovich worked in Yekaterinburg for two weeks, after which he returned to Moscow. On the night of March 30, Shirshikov received a call from the WSJ and was informed that Gershkovich was back in Yekaterinburg and had not been in touch for more than nine hours.
On March 29, Vecherniye Vedomosti reported that its reader had witnessed an arrest at the Bukowski Grill restaurant on Karl Liebknecht Street. There Shirshikov talked with Gershkovich. Security forces in civilian clothes led the man into a minibus, pulling a sweater over his head.
Meduza, citing a source among Western journalists working in Moscow, writes that Gershkovich also traveled to Nizhny Tagil. There is a defense enterprise "Uralvagonzavod".