Russia arrests Wall Street Journal reporter on spying charge

Russia’s top security agency has arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War.

The Federal Security Service said Thursday that Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information.

The Wall Street Journal said it “vehemently denies the allegations” and is seeking Gershkovich’s immediate release. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family,” the paper said.

The arrest comes amid bitter tensions between the West and Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986.

The FSB, which is the top successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on the U.S. orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex that constitutes a state secret.”

The agency didn’t say when the arrest took place. Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of espionage.

His latest report from Moscow, published earlier this week, focused on the Russian economy’s slowdown amid Western sanctions imposed when Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year.