ON MARCH 29TH Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, disappeared during a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-biggest city. The following day Russian security services came clean: they had arrested him on charges of espionage. That Mr Gershkovich, an American citizen, is accredited to report in Russia seems to have made little difference. The arrest is likely to exacerbate the already-terrible relations between Russia and America.

Social-media accounts suggested that Mr Gershkovich was removed from the Bukowski Grill, a restaurant in Yekaterinburg, by plain-clothed men who led him out with a sweatshirt over his head. He has not been seen in public since. The Wall Street Journal said it was “deeply concerned” for its reporter’s safety.

Mr Gershkovich was in Yekaterinburg to report on the recruitment of female convicts into Wagner, a private mercenary company fighting in eastern Ukraine. It was his second recent trip to the city. A local public-relations executive who helped arrange his meetings on the first visit said he had taken Mr Gershkovich for lunch at the same restaurant. “It’s not difficult to imagine that someone might visit familiar places in an unfamiliar city.”

It is understood that on another occasion Mr Gershkovich visited Nizhny Tagil, a city near Yekaterinburg where Russia’s largest tank factory is located. The FSB, Russia’s main security agency, said it had detained Mr Gershkovich after he allegedly “collected secret information about a factory in Russia’s military-industrial complex.” Charges under article 276 of the criminal code, under which Mr Gershkovich appears to be held, carry prison terms of up to 20 years.

A social-media account connected to the FSB that regularly breaks news of its operations added that the bureau is collecting assets in preparation for an exchange of prisoners. Last week America announced charges against Sergei Cherkasov, a Russian citizen arrested in the Netherlands last year while working under a Brazilian alias. In December the Biden administration agreed to exchange Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer imprisoned in America, for Brittney Griner, a basketball star who had spent almost ten months in a Russian jail on drugs charges.

Although Mr Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, his case is being handled by a unit of the central FSB. State media reports suggested that he had been transferred to the infamous high-security Lefortovo jail, which the FSB uses for espionage cases. A judge at a closed sitting ruled that he should be kept there until at least May 29th.

Russia’s leadership was almost certainly aware of the plans. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, claimed that Mr Gershkovich had been caught “red-handed,” though declined to offer details. He added that the Kremlin “monitors” Western media and was “acquainted” with Mr Gershkovich’s work. “This is the prerogative of the FSB. This is what the FSB are saying. We don’t have anything else to add.”

Already highly restrictive, Russia’s reporting laws were tightened further after the invasion of Ukraine. At least theoretically, broad swathes of legitimate reporting now border on criminal activity. The aim of the laws is to inspire fear, intimidating the press and citizens from spreading accurate information about the dwindling prospects of Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation”, as journalists are obliged to describe the war. The arrest of an American citizen working for one of the world’s most reputable media organisations is an escalation in Mr Putin’s war on the truth. ■