London (CNN) Wall Street Journal journalist Ivan Gershkovich was arrested on suspicion of espionage in Russia, Russia’s security service said.
“A correspondent for the Moscow bureau of the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal, Ivan Kershkovich, an American citizen, born in 1991, accredited to the Russian Foreign Ministry, suspected of spying for the interests of the US government, was suppressed,” Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, told state news agency RIA. Novosti said in a statement published on Thursday.
State news agency TASS reported that Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, in the eastern part of the Ural Mountains.
The FSB statement said Gershkovich was detained while “trying to obtain classified information” related to “the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, in his opinion Autobiography On the Wall Street Journal’s website. He previously worked for news agencies France-Presse, The Moscow Times and The New York Times.
“The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned about Mr. Gershkovich’s safety,” the American newspaper said in a statement.
– This A developing story and will be updated.
