Russia hopes to avoid retaliation for journalist’s arrest

Moscow, Mar 31 (Prensa Latina) The spokesman of the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, trusts that reprisals towards journalists of this country, accredited in the United States, will be avoided after the arrest of the correspondent of The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, suspected of spying, TASS informed today.

March 31, 2023
10:55

An editorial in the referred newspaper urged U.S. authorities to consider countermeasures such as the expulsion of Moscow’s ambassador and all Russian communicators working in the country.

‘The Biden administration will have to consider the possibility of diplomatic and political escalation. The expulsion of the Russian ambassador to the United States, as well as all journalists from that nation working here, is the least that can be counted on,’ he published.

He said the journalist’s detention shows a decline in the ability of the United States to discourage attacks on its citizens.

On March 30, the Federal Security Service (FSB) detained an employee of The Wall Street Journal’s Ekaterinburg bureau on charges of following U.S. government instructions and sending classified information about a defense company.

Gershkovich is under preventive arrest for two months until May 29, 2023, the Moscow Lefortovo Court decreed.

Peskov explained to the press that the journalist was caught ‘red-handed’.

Also, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova specified that Gershkovich’s activities in Ekaterinburg had nothing to do with journalism.

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