Jailed American-Jewish reporter made ‘unusual’ request from Putin before release

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was freed Thursday in a prisoner swap with Russia, had requested a one-on-one interview with President Putin before his return to the US.

By World Israel News Staff

An American journalist who was freed from imprisonment in Russia and returned to the U.S. Thursday as part of a prisoner swap had sought out a one-on-one interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin before his release, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

On Thursday, The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War, with Moscow releasing Jewish journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan and Jewish dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free.

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Journal, was arrested in March 2023, after Russian authorities accused him of spying.

Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged he was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to support the accusation. Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.

According to the Journal, the 32-year-old reporter used his presidential clemency form – by which he obtained his freedom from President Putin as part of the prisoner swap – to transmit a direct request for an interview with the Russian leader, adding his unusual request at the bottom of the form.

The deal was the latest in a series of prisoner swaps negotiated between Russia and the U.S. in the past two years, but the first to require significant concessions from other countries, with seven nations agreeing to give up 24 prisoners.

The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.