Russia detains Wall Street Journal reporter on suspicion of spying: Report

Wall Street Journal Reporter Detained: Evan Gershkovich, 31, worked for AFP in Moscow before joining the Wall Street Journal.

Russian news agencies reported that a US reporter for the Wall Street Journal newspaper has been detained in Russia on suspicion of espionage, FSB security service said. Evan Gershkovich, had been detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, Interfax news agency reported.

Wall Street Journal Reporter Detained: An undated ID photo of journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been detained in Russia for espionage. (AFP)

The FSB said it had "stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Gershkovich Evan, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, accredited at the Russian Foreign Ministry, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government".

Without evidence, the authorities claimed that Evan Gershkovich had been tasked "by the American side" with gathering information on "the activities of one of the enterprises of the military-defence complex".

Evan Gershkovich, 31, worked for AFP in Moscow before joining the Wall Street Journal. He earlier worked as a reporter for The Moscow Times, an English-language news website.