NEW YORK, April 17./TASS/. The US and about 40 countries have signed off on a statement in connection with the arrest in Russia of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

It states that the signatories to the statement are "European nations or highly industrialized U.S. allies including Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan and South Korea." It calls on Moscow ‘to release those they hold on political grounds,’ the newspaper cited the statement as saying.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the statement is expected to be announced at UN headquarters on Monday and will coincide with the 30th annual World Press Freedom Day on May 3. It also cited United States UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who said that through their initiative Washington and its allies wanted to send a clear message - "Journalism is not a crime."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Washington making a clamor about the situation around Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich won’t help the US get what it wants.

"I emphasize that any attempts to put pressure on the Russian authorities and the court, insisting on 'special treatment' for US citizens who have violated Russian law, are pointless and futile," she said.

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. 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 in custody until May 29.