MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained in Yekaterinburg a Wall Street Journal correspondent on suspicion of espionage, the FSB’s Center for Public Relations (CPR) told TASS.

"The Russian Federal Security Service has thwarted the illegal activities of Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal <…>, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government," the FSB reported.

"It was established that Evan Gershkovich, acting at the request of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex. The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to obtain classified information," the FSB pointed out.

Investigators have initiated a criminal case against the US citizen under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (Espionage).