A US journalist working for the Wall Street Journal has been arrested in Russia on charges of spying for Washington, Russia's FSB security services said on Thursday.

The FSB security services said they had "halted the illegal activities of US citizen Evan Geshkovich", saying the Wall Street Journal reporter was "suspected of spying in the interests of the American government".

Their statement confirmed that Geshkovich, 31, was working with press accreditation issued by the Russian foreign ministry.

But the statement said he had been detained for gathering information "on an enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex".

"The foreigner was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to obtain classified information," the FSB said, referring to a city in central Russia 1,800 kilometres east of Moscow.

Before joining The Wall Street Journal Gershkovich, 31, worked for AFP in Moscow.

A fluent Russian speaker, he was previously a reporter based in the Russian capital for The Moscow Times, an English-language news website.

His family immigrated to the United States from Russia when he was a child.

Several US citizens are currently in detention in Russia and both Washington and Moscow have accused the other of carrying out politically-motivated arrests. (AFP)