The Biden administration on Thursday said it condemns the detention by Russia of a Wall Street Journal reporter “in the strongest terms,” after Russia’s main security agency said it detained him for what it alleged as espionage.
Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen and member of the Journal’s Moscow bureau, was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday while on a reporting trip.
Read: Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia on spying charges
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Thursday that the Biden administration is “deeply concerned” by reports of Gershkovich’s detention. She added that White House and State Department officials Wednesday night spoke with the Wall Street Journal and the administration has been in contact with his family.
The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch are both published by Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp
NWS,
“The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable,” Jean-Pierre said. “We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms. We also condemn the Russian government’s continued targeting and repression of journalists and freedom of the press.”
A Journal statement released earlier said: “The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich.
“We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
The FSB refers to the Federal Security Bureau, which said Gershkovich, “acting 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.”
Jean-Pierre said that the State Department has been in contact with the Russian government and is working to secure access to Gershkovich.
President Vladimir Putin in February last year launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine and has been cracking down on domestic dissent.
