Wall Street Journal Reporter Detained in Russia Graduated From Bowdoin in Maine

Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in Russia Thursday morning, was a graduate of Maine's Bowdoin College.

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation issued a statement that they took Gershkovich into custody to stop "illegal activities." In a statement, The Wall Street Journal said it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich.”

Gershkovich attended Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine, and was a member of the men's soccer team his freshman year. He graduated Bowdoin in 2014 and Princeton High School in New Jersey in 2010.

"We are deeply concerned about Evan's safety, and our thought are with him and his family," he continued. "We very much hope for a speedy resolution to this situation and that he and his family are reunited soon," Bowdoin president Clayton Rose wrote in a letter to he college community.

Rose said Gershkovich was a philosophy major who also wrote for The Bowdoin Orient and helped edit The Bowdoin Globalist, now known as The Bowdoin Review.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH