WASHINGTON, April 11. /TASS/. The US State Department considers Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich arrested on espionage charges, to be ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia, Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State Vedant Patel said in a statement.

"We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth," the statement said.

According to the Public Relations Center of the Russian Federal Security Service, 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 to arrest Gershkovich until May 29.