The White House’s reaction to the arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter in Moscow.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre strongly expressed concern over reports that Ivan Gershkovich had been arrested in Russia.
This statement announced that last night the officials of the US State Department and the White House talked to the Wall Street Journal about this matter and the government has also been in contact with his family.
In addition, Jean-Pierre added that the US State Department is in direct contact with the Russian government in this regard, including actively guaranteeing consular access to the American newspaper reporter.
The spokesperson of the White House also claimed that targeting American citizens by the Russian government is unacceptable and Washington strongly condemns the arrest of Gershkovich.
This White House official emphasized: Americans should heed the US government’s warning not to travel to Russia, and citizens who live in or have traveled to Russia should leave this country immediately.
According to the information of the Russian Federal Security Service, the correspondent of the Moscow office of the American newspaper “Wall Street Journal” was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg on suspicion of spying for the interests of the American government and while collecting confidential government information about the activities of the Russian military industrial complex.
According to this information, “it has been established that Gershkovich, born in 1991, on instructions received from the United States of America, collected information that was state secrets regarding the activities of one of the companies associated with the Russian military-industrial complex. This foreign journalist when An attempt to obtain classified information has been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg.
The investigative department of the Federal Security Service has already filed a criminal case under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (relating to “espionage”).
