The pro-government publication RIA Novosti voiced threats to the arrested WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich

The propaganda publication RIA Novosti published threats from an “informed source” against the American newspaper Wall Street Journal - the “informed source” threatened consequences for the arrested journalist Evan Gershkovich if the newspaper “continues to publish disinformation regarding Russia.”

“If the Wall Street Journal continues to engage in activities unrelated to journalism, publishing disinformation regarding Russia, this will mean that the editors are not at all interested in the fate of Gershkovich,” RIA Novosti quotes.

About the arrest of Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg on the morning of March 30. Soon, RIA Novosti, citing the FSB, reported that a case of espionage was opened against the journalist (Article 276 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, he “was engaged in collecting information about one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.” After his arrest, Gershkovich was transported to Moscow, where the Lefortovo court placed him in pre-trial detention center-2 “Lefortovo”.

It became known that at the end of April the Russian Foreign Ministry told US diplomats when they visited the arrested American journalist Evan Gershkovich. Russian diplomats called this a “response” to the “provocative actions” of the US mission: earlier, the latter refused visas to journalists who were supposed to accompany Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to New York for a meeting of the UN Security Council.

refused - Lawyer of the human rights organization "First Department" Evgeniy Smirnov "Vestka" that the Gershkovich case is the first case of espionage against a foreign journalist. “This has never happened in practice in Russia before. There were two charges of treason against Russian journalists - Grigory Pasko and Ivan Safronov. But for [a case of espionage to be opened] against a foreign journalist and for espionage, I think this is a new feature,” the human rights activist explained. told