Evan Gershkovich is the first American journalist to be arrested in Russia since the Cold War. The arrest has been fumbled by the White House, which believes that the charge of espionage is false.
President Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has previously said that the arrest was not Putin's decision but that it was within the authority of the security services and that they were doing their job. Something that the informants say can be seen as a sign that anti-US influences within the Kremlin are growing.