MOSCOW, Apr 15 Journalist from The Wall newspaper arrested in Russia Street Journal Evan Gershkovich sent a letter to his family in the United States in Russian, the American edition reported.
It is clarified that his relatives live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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«I want to say that I do not lose hope . I'm reading. I exercise. And I'm trying to write. Maybe I'll finally write something good,» the letter says.
The message is dated April 5 and signed with the name «Vanya». Gershkovich wrote it in Russian, as his parents are Soviet emigrants. It is noted that this is the journalist's first contact with his family since his arrest.
On March 30, the FSB announced that Gershkovich had been detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of spying for the US government. According to the Russian intelligence service, the American collected state secret information «on the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.» The Lefortovo Court of Moscow arrested him for two months.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Gershkovich was caught red-handed. The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stressed that the activities of the detainee in Yekaterinburg had nothing to do with journalism. According to her, this is not the first time that the status of a «foreign correspondent», a journalistic visa and accreditation are used by foreigners in Russia to cover up activities that are not journalism: «it is not the first well-known Westerner who is grabbed by the hand.»
The WSJ denied the allegations against the journalist and demanded his immediate release. Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maria Pejcinovic-Buric, head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell and UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the arrest of Gershkovich. The British and French Foreign Ministries also condemned.
Zakharova noted that Moscow would provide consular access to the detainee in accordance with its internal procedures. According to her, the reaction to the arrest of Gershkovich by the United States, which turned to «threats against Russian journalists,» became a self-disclosure, if the threats continue, «they will sow a storm.»