Russian Journalists Sign Letter Demanding U.S. Reporter’s Release

At least 200 Russian journalists have signed an open letter calling on the Russian government to release American journalist Evan Gershkovich after he was detained and charged with espionage last week.

The signatories dismissed allegations that Gershkovich had been collecting state secrets about Russia’s defense industry while reporting a story for his employer, the Wall Street Journal, as “preposterous and unjust.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had “provided no evidence to support this claim; it expects us to take its investigators at their word,” the journalists said in a scathingly worded open letter published by several news organizations on Tuesday.

“The FSB’s reputation, on the contrary, has been destroyed by its own agents over the years,” the letter continued.

“There is no reason for society to trust these ‘professionals.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/04/05/russian-journalists-sign-letter-demanding-us-reporters-release-a80716