Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia on allegations of espionage, claims fervently denied by the reporter and blasted by both sides the U.S. political aisle
Last week, Russia's Federal Security Service arrested Evan Gershkovich, Moscow correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, on trumped-up charges of espionage.
Russia can interpret the espionage statute that led to the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich “any way they want," according to journalist David Satter.
howard: the russians are holding an american journalist hostage, there s no other way to put it. moscow s security service has detained evan gersch cowits on what i think are go bus charges claiming he was gathering information about a secret russian military project on behalf of the u.s. the journal vehemently denies the allegations and seeks immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, we sand in solidarity with evan and his family. this espionage charges are ridiculous. the targeting of american citizens by russian government is unacceptable. howard: joining us now, david satter, former russia correspondent for the financial times and the first foreign reporter expelled by moscow since the end of the cold war. why wouldn t the kremlin odd the do the same thing as was cone to you in 2013 and just expel again gersch cowits? is it s a different party.
to western news organizations? i ve read that some are now downsizing or perhaps if even pulling out of trying to cover russia. well, it s intended to send a chilling message to russian citizens as well as western news organizations. now, they may in addition, now that they have him in custody, they may seek to trade him for someone they want. in fact, as we know, there was a russian spy who was caught who had intended to infiltrate the international criminal court. we don t know his true value as a russian spy, what he knew, how badly they want to get him back. but it could be used in this respect, but i don t think that was the motive. howard: right. i think the motive is that this is part of the overall crackdown on any movement of information. it s a wartime measure. howard: that s a great insight from somebody who s been there. david satter, thank you very much.