Bowdoin College grad Evan Gershkovich shares details of his arrest in Russia

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a Bowdoin College graduate, spent nearly 500 days in Russian detention after he was accused of espionage.

Arrest and charges

Gershkovich was reporting on Russia's invasion of Ukraine when he was arrested in March 2023.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Gershkovich said he knew he was being watched during his time in Russia.

"Throughout the first year of the war, I was being followed.

And not just me, other reporters I was working with, in a very kind of explicit way," Gershkovich said.

Gershkovich said he was meeting with someone for an interview, which he thinks was likely a ploy by the Russian government to set him up because shortly after the source handed him papers, he was approached by about a half-dozen masked men.

"They're in full masks," he said.

"Next thing I know, they're telling me that they're with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the FSB, telling me that I'm under arrest and I'm getting dragged down onto the floor.