The speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that what the detained employee of The Wall Street Journal was doing in Yekaterinburg "has nothing to do with journalism."
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the status of a “foreign correspondent”, a journalistic visa and accreditation is used by foreigners in our country to cover up activities that are not journalism. This is not the first well-known Westerner to be “grabbed by the hand,” Zakharova wrote.
Earlier today, TASS, citing the FSB, reported that The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained on suspicion of espionage, as allegedly, on instructions from the United States, he was collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex that constitutes a state secret.
The Meduza publication, citing a source among Western journalists working in Moscow, noted that Gershkovich also traveled to Nizhny Tagil, where the Uralvagonzavod defense enterprise is located.
The international organization Reporters Without Borders has already stated that it is "alarmed" by the detention of Gershkovich and called it a "retaliatory measure" against the journalist's investigation into the work of Wagner PMC.