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

When official word made its way to The Wall Street Journal newsroom that Evan Gershkovich had been released from Russian custody, elation washed over the journalists.

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.