Andrew Osborn and Felix Light – Reuters Marc 30, 2023
- Russia accuses detained U.S. journalist of spying
- Says he was trying to gather state/military secrets
- U.S. national Evan Gershkovich denies the allegations
- Move deals latest blow to dire Russia-U.S. relations
LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) – A Moscow court ruled that a U.S. journalist for the Wall Street Journal should be detained for nearly two months on suspicion of spying, the most serious move against a foreign journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine and one quickly condemned by Washington.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday it had opened a criminal case against U.S. national Evan Gershkovich on suspicion of espionage. The Kremlin said he had been “caught red-handed.”
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration said it was deeply concerned and that officials had been in touch with Gershkovich’s employer and family.
“In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The case will worsen already dire relations between Russia and the United States, which is Ukraine’s biggest military backer and has imposed sanctions on Moscow to try to persuade it to end its invasion of Ukraine.
“The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable. We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The administration strongly urged Americans to heed its warning to avoid travel to Russia.
ESPIONAGE CHARGES
Gershkovich told the Russian court he was not guilty. His employer said the case against him, believed to be the first criminal case for espionage against a foreign journalist in post-Soviet Russia, was based on a false allegation.
Espionage under Russian law can be punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
A lot of places have been targeted in Russia and an outsider like this, whether a real journalist or not, could be monitoring the defences around Moscow. And the US can say nothing. They’ve got a journalist held in Belmarsh in terrible conditions they want extradited to the US where he will surely die, all for reporting the news.
> “In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish journalists and civil society voices,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
LOFL. Pot. Kettle. Black.
> “The targeting of American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable. We condemn the detention of Mr. Gershkovich in the strongest terms,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
(a) If they condemn it then he was most assuredly one of their goons. (b) What about the targeting of all those iraqis, syrians, libyans, yemens, etc, etc, etc by the american government?
Hyp. ocr. isy.
Of COURSE he is guilty.
The BBC’s Moscow Correspondent Steve ‘Nazi-Denier’ Rosenberg is allowed to remain in his Muscovite Apartment lying malevolently about Putin and Russia with impunity, so this Gerskovich has definitely been caught outright Doing the Dirty, and a senile President who imprisons his own citizens if they are unduly patriotic has no authority to talk about anything but ‘how did your day go?’ in the Care Home he should be residing in.
I just found this, from nazi-denying Steve ‘Nazi- Denier’ Rosenberg, from last February, by the way –
I don’t know about arresting him – if the BBC was a genuine News Outlet rather than an adolescent- level Leftist Psy-Op, they would simply recall the nazi-denying Nazi-Denier Steve ‘Nazi-Denier’ Rosenberg for getting everything spectacularly wrong – as he does by his own admission at the beginning of this piece –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60551140
Yeah, sure, just writing a little ditty or two for a back home paper.
This is funny. The neocon (bolshi) sector US is indignant because its spy was caught. Well, stiff cheddar!
CIA Asset plain and simple. This is ridiculous. We got caught with our hand in the cookie jar.