Champagne and cheers: The Wall Street Journal fought for Evan Gershkovich’s release for 16 months. It finally paid off

New York (CNN) — Champagne bottles popped. Thunderous cheering filled the room. Smiles animated faces from corner to corner.

When official word made its way to The Wall Street Journal newsroom that Evan Gershkovich had been released from Russian custody Thursday, unadulterated elation washed over the journalists who had taken part in a 16-month-long pressure campaign to seek his freedom. One staffer described the mood to CNN as “a collective massive relief.” The business-focused broadsheet’s long national nightmare had finally come to a close.

“It’s a joyous day for all of us,” Emma Tucker, The Journal’s editor-in-chief, told the joyful newsroom, offering up a toast in the New York newsroom to Gershkovich and all those who made his release possible.

For 491 days, Gershkovich had been wrongfully detained and imprisoned by Vladimir Putin’s regime, an unwitting pawn in the former KGB officer’s geopolitical games. The 32-year-old Journal reporter was arrested last March while reporting from the Russian city of Yekaterinburg and been held at the notorious Lefortovo prison outside Moscow. Last month, a sham trial led to him being convicted of supposed espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a harsh penal colony.

While Gershkovich was unjustly detained, the state of affairs inside Russia worsened for journalists and human rights advocates. Opposition leader Alexey Navalny died in prison and the Russian-American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was also wrongfully detained.

But, despite the circumstances, Gershkovich’s colleagues back at home kept hope alive, never wavering from their task of keeping his story in the public consciousness. In addition to The Journal’s unrelenting coverage of Gershkovich’s case, which always made it evident to readers that he had been wrongfully detained, employees at the newspaper held read-a-thons, global runs, and social media storms to draw attention to their colleague’s plight.

To mark the one-year anniversary of Gershkovich’s detention, The Journal made an unmistakable statement on the front page of its print edition, intentionally leaving a large section of its front page blank to represent the missing journalism from Gershkovich.

“A year in Russian prison. A year of stolen stories, stolen joys, stolen memories. The crime: journalism,” the paper stated above the empty section.

Meanwhile, The Journal labored behind the scenes with President Joe Biden and his administration on efforts to secure Gershkovich’s release. On Thursday, their persistent efforts finally paid the dividends they had hoped it would. Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, and 22 other detainees were exchanged in the largest and most complex prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War.

Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corporation, which owns The Journal, offered his “sincere gratitude” to the U.S. government for its efforts. Thomson added that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, who control the company, were “particularly pleased” Gershkovich would be reunited with his loved ones. And, in a letter to readers, Tucker thanked Biden for “working with persistence and determination to bring Evan home rather than see him shipped off to a Russian work camp for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“We are also grateful to the other governments that helped bring an end to Evan’s nightmare, in particular the German government that played such a critical role,” she wrote.

Tucker and Almar Latour, the newspaper’s publisher, however, strongly criticized Putin, blasting the authoritarian for his anti-free press record in a blistering joint statement.

“At the same time, we condemn in the strongest terms Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, which orchestrated Evan’s 491-day wrongful imprisonment based on sham accusations and a fake trial as part of an all-out assault on the free press and truth,” the duo said. “Unfortunately, many journalists remain unjustly imprisoned in Russia and around the world.”

Throughout it all, Gershkovich never lost his spirit as a journalist.

In an 8,000-word opus detailing the reporter’s horrifying ordeal and the relentless efforts to bring him home, the newspaper revealed Gershkovich left Putin with one last request before he exited his detention: a request for an interview.

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