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US reporter Gershkovich held by authority of security services, not president — Kremlin

FSB investigators opened a criminal case against the US citizen Evan Gershkovich under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is accused of espionage, was made at the prerogative of the security services, not the president of Russia, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"No, this is not the president’s prerogative. The security services are handling this case," Peskov told a news briefing in response to a question about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally ordered the arrest of the US journalist.

According to the Public Relations Center of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Evan Gershkovich, "acting at the behest of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex." The reporter was detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in late March.

FSB investigators opened a criminal case against the US citizen under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Espionage"). Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the journalist had been "caught red-handed." On March 30, Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court ordered that Gershkovich be held until May 29.

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