From a New York Times news analysis by Anton Troianovski headlined “In Arrest of American Reporter, Russia Doubles Down on Isolation From West”:

With the arrest of a Wall Street Journal correspondent on Thursday, President Vladimir V. Putin signaled to the world that he was doubling down on Russia’s wartime isolation.

Russia has expelled foreign journalists in recent years, but in jailing an American reporter, Evan Gershkovich, and formally accusing him of being a spy, the Kremlin took a step with no precedent since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a stunningly provocative move, aimed at one of the best-known Western journalists still working inside Russia and his employer, a pillar of the American news media.