Press freedom groups pushed for Gershkovich's release from practically the moment of his arrest, mobilizing around the slogan "journalism is not a crime."Francis Chung/Politico/AP; Marina Moldavskaja/Kommersant/Sipa USA/AP
After being wrongfully detained by Russian security forces for more than a year on bogus espionage charges, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been released following a massive prisoner swap, the Journal confirmed on Thursday.
The swap—which also reportedly includes two dozen prisoners total from six countries, including former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American Radio Free Europe editor Alsu Kurmasheva—comes as a major win for the Biden administration and advocates of press freedoms. The WSJ in particular kept Gershkovich’s wrongful detention front and center in the media throughout his detention, reminding the world that journalism is not a crime. Among those efforts were the hashtag #IStandWithEvan and a front page dedicated to Gershkovich on the first anniversary of his detention. The page was largely blank with the headline, “His story should be here.”
In a statement, President Biden called the exchange “a feat of diplomacy,” adding, “Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”
Gershkovich’s family, and the families of some the other American hostages, joined Biden at the White House on Thursday afternoon to celebrate the news. “This is a very good afternoon,” Biden told reporters. He added that he and the families who joined him in person had just spoken to the newly-released Americans by phone from the Oval Office. “I told them, ‘welcome almost home,'” Biden said.
Biden added that Russia released 16 prisoners as part of the deal—including four Americans, five Germans, and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners—and that eight Russians being held in the West were also being released.
In March 2023, members of Russia’s Federal Security Service—the country’s intelligence agency, also known as the FSB—detained Gershkovich while he was on a reporting assignment in the city of Yekaterinburg, according to the Journal. Gershkovich, whose parents fled the Soviet Union in the 1970s, had full press credentials from Russia’s foreign ministry and had reported from Moscow for Agence France Press and the Moscow Times before joining the Journal in January 2022. His arrest marked the first time an American journalist has been held on such charges in Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Russian officials never publicly presented evidence of their espionage claims against Gershkovich. Nonetheless, a Russian court last month sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian penal colony following what American officials described as a sham trial.
The Journal‘s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, celebrated the news in a post on X, calling Gershkovich’s release “a day of great joy and relief for Evan, his family, WSJ colleagues, and all those who campaigned so hard for his release. It is also a great day for press freedom.”
Tucker and Almar Latour, publisher of the Wall Street Journal Publisher and CEO of Dow Jones, credited “broad advocacy for his release around the world” for Gershkovich’s freedom. Gershkovich’s mother, father, and sister also thanked supporters in a statement, writing, “it’s hard to describe what today feels like. We can’t wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists CEO Jodie Ginsberg said in a statement that Gershkovich and Kurmasheva had been “detained and sentenced on spurious charges intended to punish them for their journalism and stifle independent reporting.”
“Their reported release is welcome,” Ginsberg continued, “but it does not change the fact that Russia continues to suppress a free press.” There are still over a dozen other journalists detained by Russia, according to the CPJ’s tracker, and, as of last December, more than 300 journalists are imprisoned around the world.
The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
