Who is Evan Gershkovich, US journalist arrested in Russia on spying charges first time since Cold War?

A court in Moscow has formally arrested an American reporter accused of espionage.

As per the Russian state news agency TASS, the Lefortovo district court in Moscow has sent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Evan Gershkovich to pre-trial custody till 29 May.

Gershkovich denied the allegations in the court, state-run TASS reported on Thursday (30 March).

The US newspaper has also rejected the espionage charges against its journalist.

Who is Evan Gershkovich, why was he arrested and how will it impact already fraught US-Russia relations? We explain.

Who is Evan Gershkovich?

Gershkovich is a reporter who covers Russia, Ukraine and the other former Soviet Union countries, says his profile on the WSJ website.

As per a WSJ report, 31-year-old Gershkovich, who is fluent in Russian, has been working as a reporter for the paper’s Moscow bureau in Russia since 2017.

He was previously employed by Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times.

Gershkovich, who is a graduate of US’ Bowdoin College in Maine, has also worked as a news assistant in New York for The New York Times, the report added.

The reporter’s parents live in the US but originally hail from the Soviet Union, reported Al Jazeera.

Gershkovich’s last report from Moscow, published earlier this week, was about Russia’s slackening economy amid Western sanctions imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last February, reported Associated Press (AP).

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Russia’s allegations against the WSJ reporter

Russia’s top security agency, Federal Security Service, said earlier today that it has detained Gershkovich – who was working in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg – for suspected espionage, accusing him of gathering information “classified as a state secret” about a military factory, according to Reuters.

The FSB said in a statement that the US journalist “was acting on the US orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex that constitutes a state secret”, reported AP.

The FSB did not reveal when the US reporter was arrested but acknowledged that Gershkovich had accreditation from the Russian foreign ministry to work as a journalist.

The Kremlin claimed Gershkovich had been “caught red-handed”, reported BBC.

“This is the responsibility of the FSB, they have already issued a statement,” government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the arrest. “The only thing I can add is, as far as we know, he was caught red-handed.”

The Kremlin also warned the US against retaliatory actions against Russian media.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that foreign correspondent status, a press 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 caught red-handed,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

If convicted, the reporter could face a jail term of 20 years.

WSJ defends reporter

Denying the allegations, the US newspaper called for the release of its reporter.

“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich” the WSJ said in a statement.

Gershkovich has become the first American reporter to be arrested in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War. Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for US News and World Report, was arrested in September 1986 by the KGB.

He was released 20 days later after the then US administration led by Ronald Reagan agreed to swap the journalist for an employee of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission, who was arrested by the FBI, noted AP.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told the state RIA news agency that it was too early to comment on a possible prisoner exchange for Gershkovich.

Earlier in December, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Brittney Griner was released after 10 months in prison in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

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Media groups condemn arrest

Media freedom groups and journalists have condemned Gershkovich’s arrest.

Expressing concern, the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said it “looks like retaliation”.