‘Would Putin sit down for an interview’: How Wall Street Journal’s reporter Evan Gershkovich was freed through secret negotiations

One of the prisoners was Wall Street Journal’s journalist Evan Gershkovich who was held by Russian authorities when he was covering Russia’s descent into repression.

And unknowingly, he became a central part of one of the most complicated prisoner swaps in world history.

The Kremlin agreed for a prisoner swap in order to get hold of one of his professional hit men, Vadim Krasikov, who had gunned down an exile in broad daylight in a Berlin park and was held in Germany.

It was Vadim’s case which was studied deeply by Journalist Evan’s mother Ella Milman for 16 months and she knew that he held the key for her son’s freedom.

Vadim once told a guard that “The Russian Federation will not leave me to rot in jail,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

On March 29, 2023, Evan who was last seen at a restaurant 900 miles east of Moscow, was not reachable. His colleagues video called and contacted every possible person he was in touch with but to no avail.

It was then that the Wall Street Journal’s top management called government contacts in Washington, and sent notes to the State Department and the White House.

In this image made from video provided by Russian Federal Security Service via RTR on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, center,is escorted by a Russian Federal Security Service agent, left, as they arrive at an airport outside Moscow, Russia. (Russian Federal Security Service/RTR via AP)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to calls and said, “We will get him back.” The WSJ then informed Evan’s mother Ella that her son was missing. She immediately asked, “What do I do?” And by midnight the news broke that Evan had been charged with espionage.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who himself was a former KGB officer and FSB director, realised that to get Russians freed from American paws, he needs to capture Americans itself.

In a series of arrests carried out by the Kremlin, the FSB arrested Paul Whelan, a former Marine visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding and later on another former Marine Trevor Reed, on assault charges.

Putin, who was talking about the prisoner trade behind closed doors, had now come out in the open and declared in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Evan was being held for a prisoner swap deal.

Referring to Evan, Carlson at the end of his two hour interview asked Putin, “This guy is obviously not a spy, he’s just a kid.” Putin first time publicly kept his demand and addressed the White House directly saying, “He’s being held hostage in exchange” for “a person serving a sentence in an allied country of the US”.

After enduring unimaginable suffering and uncertainty, the Americans detained in Russia are safe, free, and have begun their journeys back into the arms of their families. pic.twitter.com/1rYNBTt9tJ

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 1, 2024

It was now clear that Putin was seeking his hitman Vadim who was serving a life sentence in Germany. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reached Washington and held a meeting with President Joe Biden and agreed to release him.

The swap deal included Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. Putin was open to the deal which included Navalny but on February 16, reports emerged that Navalny had died in prison.

Journalist Evan’s mother Ella panicked and immediately contacted the US administration for a resolution and carrying forward with the deal.

But the Biden administration was till now divided about the way forward and simultaneously, didn’t want to be seen as too eager for it.

But it was finally evident to Ella that a trade was evident as her son Evan’s trial procedure was concluded in three days. Ella stood up all night on July 19 to witness the sentencing of his son, who was seen in the glass box with a shaved head.

As a judge sentenced Evan to 16 years in prison, he cracked a joke through his lawyers which eventually reached his mother: Evan said he was expecting more.

And since the deal was finalised, the procedure to exit the Russian prisons was underway and Evan was required to get an official request for president’s clemency.

Evan wrote the request in Russian which he had polished in the past 16 months addressed to President Putin.

Interestingly, the last line submitted in the request was a proposal to President Putin after he is released from prison: “Would Putin be willing to sit down for an interview?”