Russian security forces followed Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich. The journalist himself assumed that his phone was being tapped, according to the WSJ.
The publication writes that even before the arrest in Yekaterinburg, when Gershkovich traveled around Russia on a journalistic assignment, the security forces recorded his movements on camera and put pressure on sources, with whom he worked. When the journalist was in Pskov, he was also followed by unknown people.
Gershkovich himself assumed that his phone was tapped. On the day of his arrest, the journalist's colleagues monitored his movements using a GPS tracking application, but when Gershkovich disappeared from communication, his phone was also turned off.
The detention of the journalist became known on March 30. Later, the security forces brought him from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, after which the court sent Gershkovich to a pre-trial detention center on a case of espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code). The FSB believes that the correspondent “on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”
Evan Gershkovich case. WSJ journalist accused of espionage
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov claims that Gershkovich was caught red-handed. According to the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, in Yekaterinburg, he was engaged in work that «has nothing to do with journalism.»
Gershkovich has US citizenship, but has been living in Moscow for six years. Over the years, he has collaborated with Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times and The New York Times. His latest article in the Wall Street Journal Russia’s Economy Is Starting to Come Undone was published on March 28. In addition, in December, together with several other authors, he published an article stating that unreliable information was being reported to Vladimir Putin about the course of the war in Ukraine. According to the interlocutors of the journalists, FSB officers correct the data from the front.
Because of the criminal prosecution of Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal on March 31 called on the US authorities to expel the Russian ambassador and all Russian journalists from the country. “The Biden administration will have to think about diplomatic and political escalation. The expulsion of the Russian ambassador to the United States, as well as all Russian journalists working here, is the expected minimum, ”the publication said. US President Joe Biden also commented on the arrest of Gershkovich — he demanded that the Russian authorities release the journalist.