Going into 2024, Evan Gershkovich’s future looked anything but certain. All the Wall Street Journal reporter and his allies saw was indefinite detention at the mercy of a repressive regime using him as a high-stakes bargaining chip.
But a year later, Gershkovich is home with his family and even reporting again. The nightmarish ordeal, which began in March 2023 when the reporter was arrested in Yekaterinburg and falsely accused of espionage, came to an end in August after a complex prisoner swap brought him, ex-Marine Paul Whelan and others held in Russia home for good.
Gershkovich, now 33, has kept a low profile since returning to the U.S., where he was greeted by his family, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. But as he put it, he “never stopped reporting” even while languishing in a notorious Moscow prison for more than a year.
Earlier this month, his name appeared in a byline on a WSJ story about the secret Kremlin spy unit behind his arrest, which was used as a bargaining tool for the eventual release of Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, among others. The deeply reported story delved into the shadowy Russian Department for Counterintelligence Operations and how it orchestrated his incarceration, which lasted 490 days.
Evan Gershkovich, followed by his mother Ella Milman, smiles as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on August 1, 2024. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
WALL STREET JOURNAL’S EVAN GERSHKOVICH REVEALS SHADOWY KREMLIN FIGURE BEHIND IMPRISONMENT IN RUSSIA
“It’s an absolute delight to publish Evan’s byline again,” Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker told Fox News Digital. “We have all missed his superb reporting and the unique insights that he brings to the Journal’s coverage.”
Gershkovich’s friends at the Journal and across the media industry ceaselessly worked to keep his plight in the public’s consciousness. The Biden administration swiftly labeled him “wrongfully detained” after his arrest and the president mentioned both Gershkovich and Whelan at his 2024 State of the Union address, calling for their return home. As it turned out, while Biden was considering dropping out of the presidential race in July, he was at the same time negotiating the deal that would soon after bring the men home.
Gershkovich himself became a symbol of both the human spirit and the consequences of Russia’s chilling suppression of journalism and dissidents under autocratic leader Vladimir Putin.
During his incarceration, he never appeared to flag in demeanor, staying upbeat according to friends and family, writing letters, and tracking others’ birthdays. He even played a slow-motion, by-mail game of chess with his father, who, like his mother, immigrated to the U.S. from the Soviet Union.
That didn’t make things any less difficult for his loved ones, who celebrated the holidays with empty chairs to mark their missing friend, someone who just wanted to be a reporter who had been made into a political pawn. Gershkovich long nursed a fascination with Russia and embraced reporting on the country despite the inherent dangers. “Journalism is not a crime” became the rallying cry, but in Russia, apparently it was.
Evan Gershkovich reacts after disembarking from a plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., August 1, 2024. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)
BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE PRISONER SWAP TO FREE WSJ REPORTER EVAN GERSHKOVICH FROM RUSSIAN PRISON
“It’s been a nightmare for us. One year is such a long period that Evan has been in jail,” his close friend Pjotr Sauer, a reporter at The Guardian, told Fox News Digital in March as he hit his anniversary of imprisonment. “We all know these charges are completely bogus and we hope the White House will do everything it can.”
After having his pre-trial detainment repeatedly extended, Gershkovich was finally convicted in July and given a 16-year sentence in a penal colony. This was expected and actually viewed as a way to potentially get things moving on a prisoner exchange.
Then the news finally came out of nowhere on Aug. 1: a deal had been struck, and Gershkovich was finally coming home.
Russia and Belarus released 16 prisoners in the swap for eight Russians being held in the West. Among the prisoners Russia released were four Americans, including Gershkovich and Whelan. Alsu Kurmasheva, another American citizen, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a green card holder, were also freed.
“Their brutal ordeal is over, and they are free,” Biden said, just 11 days after his stunning withdrawal from the 2024 Democratic nomination.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich came home this year after nearly 500 days of imprisonment on dubious spying charges in Russia. (ALEXANDER NEMENOV / Contributor)
It was cause for celebration, and even those in the media industry who had never met Gershkovich exulted in his release. Staffers popped champagne in the Wall Street Journal newsroom. Assistant editor Paul Beckett, who was tasked by the Journal to work to secure Gershkovich’s release in any way possible, wrote, “We celebrate with his wonderful family and all the families reunited today.”
“How does it feel to finally be home?” a reporter asked Gershkovich the night he returned at Joint Base Andrews.
He smiled and said, “It’s not bad.”
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Ever the journalist, Gershkovich had something to ask Putin while filling out a mandated official request for presidential clemency before his release.
Would he be available for an interview?
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
