MOSCOW, 30 Mar-RIA news. The arrested American correspondent Evan Gershkovich has been granted consular access, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
When asked if consular access was provided to the arrested person, she said: «yes.» She did not give any details to what was said.
The FSB stopped the illegal activities of the Wall Street Journal correspondent, American citizen Evan Gershkovich. He was detained in Yekaterinburg, and a case of espionage was initiated.
Earlier Thursday, the Russian FSB announced that Gershkovich, a correspondent for the WSJ's Moscow bureau, had been detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of spying for the US government. According to the intelligence service, the American collected information constituting a state secret «on the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.» Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Gershkovich was caught red-handed.
The WSJ denied the accusations against Gershkovich and demanded his immediate release. In turn, Zakharova said that Gershkovich's activities in Yekaterinburg «have nothing to do with journalism.»