MOSCOW - Investigators from the Russian Federal Security Service have officially accused Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage, but the journalist has vigorously denied the allegations, according to domestic news organizations on Friday.

In Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on March 30 that it had detained Gershkovich and had filed an espionage charge against him for gathering what it claimed were state secrets about the military-industrial complex.

Interfax cited a source as saying, "Gershkovich has been charged,"

According to TASS, Gershkovich, 31, had been officially charged by FSB investigators with engaging in espionage in support of the United States but had refuted the accusation.

A source who was not named was quoted by TASS as saying, "He categorically denied all the accusations and stated that he was engaged in journalistic activities in Russia,"

Because the case is secret, the TASS source declined to make any additional comments.

According to media reports, Evan has allegedly been charged, as the Journal stated in a statement. We continue to demand Evan's immediate release because, as we have stated from the beginning, these accusations are categorically false and unjustified.

Since the end of the Cold War, American journalist Gershkovich has been held in Russia on espionage-related charges.

Gershkovich, according to the Kremlin, was engaging in espionage "under the cover" of journalism. In order to obtain secrets, Gershkovich was caught in the act, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who spoke to the US.

In addition to calling the Russian accusations of espionage absurd, the United States has urged Russia to free Gershkovich. President of the United States Joe Biden has demanded Gershkovich's release. .

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has not made any public remarks about the incident.

Gershkovich, a native Russian speaker who was raised in New Jersey by Soviet immigrants and moved to Moscow in late 2017 to work for the English-language Moscow Times, later worked for the French national news organization Agence France-Presse.

In February 2022, just as Gershkovich was leaving London to join the Journal's Moscow bureau, Russia declared the beginning of its "special military operation"

He would reside in London but frequently travel to Russia for reporting trips as a correspondent authorized by the Foreign Ministry.