The US has officially ruled the arrest of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich in Russia unlawful. This was announced by the State Department on Monday in Washington. “Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued suppression of independent voices in Russia and its ongoing war on the truth,” it said in a statement. Russia was asked to release Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, an American who was also in prison.
The correspondent for the Wall Street Journal was arrested by the FSB secret service at the end of March on charges of espionage in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals. The reporter, born in 1991, is now in custody. If convicted, Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison. The affair has put even more strain on the already strained relations between Washington and Moscow. Whelan was previously convicted of alleged espionage in 2018.
