‘Evan Gershkovich is Free’: WSJ Celebrates Freed Reporter With Backstory of His Stunning Release

(AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

The Wall Street Journal published a lengthy piece celebrating the release of reporter Evan Gershkovich that detailed the backstory of his freedom from Russia.

The outlet noted that Gershkovich was freed as part of the largest prisoner swap with Moscow since the Cold War. More than 16 people were released from Russian custody. U.S. and Europe released eight people back to Russia as tension between the East and West remains high amidst the Ukraine war .

WSJ editor in chief Emma Tucker sent an email to staff announcing the news of Gerskovich’s release, and wrote she planned to meet him when he arrives to the U.S. in Texas.

“I cannot even begin to describe the immense happiness and relief that this news brings and I know all of you will feel the same. This is a day of great joy for Evan and his family, and a historic day for The Wall Street Journal,” Tucker wrote, according to The New York Times .

She added, “We have a plan in place to ensure Evan is well looked after. We want him to take as much time as he needs to recuperate privately and are doing everything we can to support him and his family.”

For more than a year, Gershkovich remained behind bars on allegations of espionage by the Kremlin, which the U.S. maintained were false and baseless. He was later sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony after a three-day trial.

Former Marine Paul Whelan , journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara Murza are among the other political dissidents released by the Kremlin.

The WSJ noted that shortly before President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race he called the prime minister of Slovenia to secure the release of two convicted Russian spies as part of the prisoner swap deal:

At the center of the deal was Krasikov, a convicted murderer that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been pushing to free since 2021. The former intelligence officer, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, had shot and killed a Chechen rebel leader in a Berlin park, and was serving a life sentence.

The exchange is emblematic of a new era of state-sponsored hostage-taking by autocratic governments seeking leverage over rivals. It was negotiated as tensions soared between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine.

It also offers sobering evidence of the asymmetry between the U.S. and Russia in this new, piratical order. Putin can order foreigners plucked from restaurants and hotels and given lengthy prison sentences on spurious charges—something an American leader can’t do.

As the U.S. sought over the course of a year to extract Gershkovich, Whelan and others without offering Krasikov in return, senior Russian intelligence officials had made clear there was no deal without him. German officials eventually agreed, extracting their own price of a dozen Russian prisoners in return.