Evan Gershkovich released in biggest East-West prisoner swap since Cold War

The American journalist Evan Gershkovich has been freed from a Russian jail as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War. Sixteen prisoners were handed over to US officials on Thursday in a deal struck between the White House, the Kremlin and several other European nations. Mr Gershkovich, 32, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has been in Russian custody since March 2023, when he was arrested on a reporting assignment and accused of spying for the American government. Paul Whelan, a British-American former US marine, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian activist, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American reporter, are among the other Western prisoners released. Russia received eight of its own nationals in exchange, including Vadim Krasikov, an intelligence agent know as the “bicycle assassin”, and Artem and Anna Dultsev, who were arrested living as deep cover spies in Slovenia. The deal involved more Western countries than any other prisoner swap in h