Russia's security service, the FSB, said Thursday that it has detained a reporter with the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal.
The reporter, Evan Gershkovich, was detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage, the FSB said in a statement Thursday.
The FSB claimed Gershkovich was "acting on instructions from the American side" and alleged that the reporter "was collecting information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Russia." It provided no evidence to support the allegations.
Russia has a long reputation of harassing journalists and has detained a number of foreigners on spying charges, with the reasons for the detentions (and, in some cases, prosecutions) often spurious and politically motivated.
The WSJ said it was "deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Gershkovich."