Russia detains Wall Street Journal reporter and accuses him of espionage

Russia has detained an American journalist, accusing him of espionage and launching a criminal case against him.

Evan Gershkovich is a U.S. citizen and reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering Russia, Ukraine, and more, per his Twitter profile. He was arrested in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, according to Meduza, a Russian-focused news website.

The security service said Gershkovich, 32, was "acting on the instructions of the American side, carried out the collection of information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex," adding that the journalist was detained "while trying to obtain secret information," per Meduza.

The news outlet reported that the criminal case launched against Gershkovich is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Gershkovich had reportedly traveled to Yekaterinburg, deep into Russian territory and about 900 miles east of Moscow, to report on the Wagner Group.