Russian authorities detained journalist Evan Gershkovich this Thursday, who works in an american newspaper Wall Street Magazinefor alleged espionage activities, which was confirmed by the Federal Security Service (FSB).

“The FSB stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, correspondent for the Moscow bureau of the daily Wall Street Magazineaccredited at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, suspicions of spying for the US government, said.

Thus, he stressed that the journalist arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg and He faces a possible term of up to 20 years in prison. suspected of “acting on the order of the United States to collect information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the companies of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

According to the independent media outlet Meduza, Gershkovich was detained on Wednesday. in front of a restaurant in the capital of the Urals.

The publication indicated that the American reporter was in this city, collecting information about the attitude of the Russian population towards Wagner’s private army, currently leading the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Wagner Group, Owned by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and sent mercenaries to Ukraine. Gershkovich’s latest article, published Wall Street Magazine it is dated March 28 under the heading “The Russian economy begins to fall apart.”

Previously, Gershkovich worked for the French news agency AFP and the Russian newspaper The Moscow Times. He also published in New York Times, Economist, MIT Technology Overview, Foreign policy And Political Europeamong other things, according to its website.

According to the local newspaper Evening News (Evening news), the reader witnessed arrest of a man in the city center.

“When they took the detainee they covered his head with a T-shirt so that passers-by do not see his face, ”added the publication.

(Europe Press)