March 30, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

The Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich is the first US journalist to be accused of spying by Russia since 1986, when journalist Nick Daniloff was detained on a similar charge. 

Back then Ronald Reagan was US president, Russia was part of the Soviet Union and ties were badly strained over the Cold War.

Daniloff was arrested during the end of his assignment for working for US News and World Report in 1986. He was imprisoned for weeks in isolated conditions while before the Reagan administration negotiated his release. 

Speaking at a press conference after his release in 1986, Daniloff called it a "very complex situation," stressing that without President Reagan's "very deep and personal interest" in his case he would have likely been imprisoned for much longer.  

"In my case, the FBI had arrested a Soviet in New York for espionage, and the Russians then arrested me," Daniloff told CNN. He added that negotiation eventually secured his release, involving a "solution for the guy who was arrested in New York." 

The Kremlin did not comment when asked if Gershkovich’s arrest was a tit-for-tat move following the arrest last week of Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov in the US, who is accused of being a Russian spy. 

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was asked by CNN during a daily briefing Thursday if Gershkovich's arrest could be a "retaliatory measure" after the US arrested a Russian on espionage charges last week. 

"I do not have such information. I have nothing to say on this topic," he replied. 

Some more Russian reaction now to the arrest of the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich.

A Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when asked to comment said "as far as we know, he was caught red-handed."

“This is the prerogative of the FSB [Federal Security Service]. They have already made a statement. We have nothing to add. The only thing I can add, as far as we know, he was caught red-handed,” Peskov said during a regular call with journalists.

The Russian authorities often make baseless claims about the work of foreign journalists.

When asked by CNN to clarify what that means in regards to a journalist accused of espionage, Peskov said: “No, I cannot clarify. I do not have the details. Once again, this is the prerogative of the special services who are fighting spies.”

Peskov was also asked if Gershkovich’s arrest was related to reporting he had carried out before or something he was working on now. Peskov responded: “I can’t say. I don’t know the details.”

The Kremlin spokesperson said “of course” the Kremlin knows his work and is familiar with his publications.

In a statement the Wall Street Journal said it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich. We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family."

The spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Maria Zakharova, said the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich’s work in Yekaterinburg, Russia, had “nothing to do with journalism.”

CNN has contacted the US Embassy in Moscow for comment on Gershkovich’s arrest. 

The Wall Street Journal has had a decades-long presence in Moscow.

Zakharova and the Russian MFA routinely make baseless claims about the work and the motives of foreign journalists in Russia.

Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, Russia's security service the FSB says.

The founder and head of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a voice note Thursday he was “not aware” of the arrest of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich.

The message came in response to a question from a journalist regarding Gershkovich’s reporting.

In its statement on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal did not comment on what story Gershkovich was working on at the time of his arrest.

Some context: A journalist with the Wall Street Journal -- Evan Gershkovich -- has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday.

An FSB statement said: "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."

The arrest of the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich comes amid a crackdown in Russia on independent journalists and foreign news outlets in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

In March 2022, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a censorship bill into law making it impossible for news organizations to accurately report the news in or from Russia.

The law, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, makes it a crime to disseminate “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine, with a penalty of up to 15 years in prison for anyone convicted.

In the wake of the law passing, several major international news outlets including CNN, the BBC and CBS News, announced they would initially suspend reporting in Russia.

Western publications and social media sites have been blocked online, forcing Russians seeking alternatives to the official propaganda to go underground using virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow people to browse the internet freely by encrypting their internet traffic.

Data from Sensortower, an apps market research company, show the top eight VPN apps in Russia were downloaded almost 80 million times in Russia this year, despite the government’s efforts against their use.

A journalist with the Wall Street Journal -- Evan Gershkovich -- has been arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says.

An FSB statement said: "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."

State news agency TASS reported he was detained in Yekaterinburg, on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. 

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."

According to Gershkovich’s bio page on the Wall Street Journal’s website, he covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. He previously worked for news agency Agence France-Presse, the Moscow Times and the New York Times. 

CNN has contacted the Wall Street Journal for comment.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council (UNSC) from April 1 is a "bad joke."

Russia takes up the presidency for a month this weekend for the first time since invading Ukraine last year.

As a result of the conflict Russia is economically and diplomatically isolated but it remains one of five permanent members of the Council.

“Russia has usurped its seat; it’s waging a colonial war; its leader is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for kidnapping children. The world can’t be a safe place with Russia at [the] UNSC,” Kuleba tweeted.

Earlier this week, Russia suffered a setback after it failed to gain enough votes at the UNSC for its proposed resolution to investigate attacks on the Nordstream pipeline. 

Olesya Krivtsova thinks it's because she was neither the first, nor the last, to criticize the war in Ukraine that she scared Russian authorities as much as she did.

Her social media posts were neither particularly strident nor unusual, she told CNN, reflecting those of so many other university students across the country. And that, she believes, is where her troubles started: when her fellow students denounced her to authorities in need of an example.

Now in Lithuania and on Moscow's list of most wanted criminals, the softly spoken, slight 20-year-old from Russia's northwestern Arkhangelsk region makes for an unlikely villain. But from the start, Russian authorities seemed to have singled her out for harsh punishment with particular zeal.

According to OVD-Info, a Russian human rights media group, most of the 447 Russians prosecuted for anti-war activity since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year have been charged with "disseminating false information." But Krivtsova was placed under house arrest in January, and banned from using the internet on the far more serious charges of discrediting the Russian army and justifying terrorism. OVD-Info reports 49 people have been charged for discrediting the army and 30 for justifying terrorism.

Those charges relate to an Instagram story she posted about the Crimean bridge blast last October, which also criticized Russia for invading Ukraine, and for making an allegedly critical repost of the war in a student chat on the Russian social network VK.

Her voice should have remained a little one, she said, but for the repression she faced.

Read more here.

Russia's Wagner mercenary group is "suffering an enormous amount of casualties in the Bakhmut area," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told US lawmakers Wednesday, describing the battle for the eastern city as a “slaughter-fest" for the Russians.

Meanwhile, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message Wednesday that the battle for the city "has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army," but added his troops had "been pretty battered" as well.

Here are the latest developments: