US journalist Evan Gershkovich has described being arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in Yekaterinburg in 2023 while meeting a source, according to an interview with the ABC's 7.30 programme broadcast on Thursday. He said masked men took him, hooded him and questioned who he worked for; after he answered that he worked for the Wall Street Journal, he said, he was struck and later charged with espionage.

Gershkovich, described as the first US journalist arrested in Russia since the Cold War, said that in his small Lefortovo cell he concluded he was being held for a prisoner exchange. He told 7.30 that on his second night a state television host spoke of replenishing an exchange fund, and that he was treated comparatively well. He recalled hearing of Alexei Navalny's death in February 2024 during his daily hour outside, and linked his release six months later to a swap in Türkiye alongside Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva.

Gershkovich also recounted a prison guard declining to discuss the war, saying he would rather fish at his country house, and cited an estimate that 15 per cent of people support Putin in the war and 15 per cent oppose it.