Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, according to Russia's security service.
"The illegal activities of the correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, US citizen Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, suspected of espionage in the interests of the American government, have been suppressed," Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement published Thursday by state news agency RIA Novosti.
Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, state news agency TASS reported.
The FSB statement said Gershkovich was detained "while trying to obtain secret information" relating to "the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex."
Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, according to his biography on the Wall Street Journal's website. He previously worked for news agency Agence France-Presse, the Moscow Times and the New York Times.
"The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Gershkovich," the US newspaper said in a statement.
— This is a developing story and will be updated.
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