Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was formally charged with espionage in Russia on Friday after initially being detained by Russian authorities last week.
Gershkovich denied the charge and maintained that he was engaged in journalistic activities, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the Journal reporter last Thursday of trying to gain access to classified information.
The FSB claimed that 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 White House vowed to “do everything we can” to secure Gershkovich’s release, calling the espionage charges against the journalist “ridiculous.”
“Evan is not a spy; Evan has never been a spy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Tuesday’s press briefing. “This is a case that is a priority for the president.”
Gershkovich’s detainment also prompted a rare joint statement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday, as they called for the reporter’s release.
“Let there be no mistake: journalism is not a crime,” the pair said. “We demand the baseless, fabricated charges against Mr. Gershkovich be dropped and he be immediately released and reiterate our condemnation of the Russian government’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish independent journalists and civil society voices.”