WASHINGTON, Mar 30 US authorities after the arrest of a Wall Street journalist Journal Evan Gershkovich urge Americans to leave Russia, but do not persuade the media to withdraw their employees from there, realizing that the risk is an integral part of their work, said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council.
“I don’t know anything about the media offering to recall their journalists from Moscow. We understand that you have an important job. In doing it, you are ready and must take risks. We respect this,” he said at a briefing for the media.
This, according to Kirby, does not change «our deep concern» about the presence of Americans in Russia.
Earlier Thursday, the FSB of the Russian Federation announced that Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Moscow bureau of the WSJ, 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 allegations against Gershkovich and demanded his immediate release. In turn, Zakharova said that Gershkovich's activities in Yekaterinburg «have nothing to do with journalism.»