Russia’s Security Council seat branded a ‘farce’ by MPs after arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich

RUSSIA’S seat at the head of the UN Security Council has been branded a “farce” after the arrest of reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Influential MPs blasted warmonger Vladimir Putin’s nation after the 31-year-old Wall Street Journal man was charged with spying.

Russian officials are yet to provide any evidence to back up their claims against Gershkovich, who faces 20 years in a penal colony if found guilty.

It comes as Russia formally took its month’s turn of the presidency of the UN Security Council, despite the war in Ukraine and the “spy” arrest.

The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines media freedoms. Alicia Kearns MP, chair of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, called the Russian UN presidency “farcical”.

She said: “The current chair of the UNSC, the body responsible for upholding the international rules based order, has at best arrested Mr Gershkovich for propaganda purposes — and at worst as a bargaining chip to try to lessen American support for Ukraine or to secure a prisoner exchange.

“Arresting journalists on trumped-up charges for use as hostages and geopolitical bargaining chips should be the actions of pariah terrorist states, not the Security Council chair.”

Tobias Ellwood, head of the Defence Select Committee, added: “Russia’s arbitrary arrest of journalists is a tragedy.

And Putin presiding over the UN Security Council is a farce.”

The Wall Street Journal has denied the charges and called the arrest “completely unjust”.