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Russian investigators have charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unidentified source.

Russia's Federal Security Service, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on 30 March that it had detained Gershkovich in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and had opened an espionage case against the 31-year-old for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex.

"Gershkovich has been charged," Interfax quoted a source as saying. He was charged with espionage.

The Journal has denied that Gershkovich was spying and demanded the immediate release of its "trusted and dedicated reporter".

The United States has urged Russia to release Gershkovich and cast the Russian claims of espionage as ridiculous.

(Reuters)