Gershkovich advocates for Russian dissidents in first comments after arriving in the U.S.
Evan Gershkovich chose to advocate for dissidents in Russian prisons, in his first comments on U.S. soil after he was freed as part of a prisoner exchange.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich advocated for dissidents languishing in Russian prisons, in his first public comments on U.S. soil after he was freed as part of Thursday's prisoner exchange.
“There’s one thing I would like to say. It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners,” Gershkovich said in a brief conversation with Andrew Roth, a reporter for The Guardian, as he stepped off the plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
“I just spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where basically everyone I was sat with is a political prisoner,” he added.
Seven Russian citizens, including four who worked with the late opposition figure Alexei Navalny, were among the 24 people freed in the major multinational prisoner exchange. They were jailed in their own country, and released into the West.
Evan Gershkovich at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Thursday.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesOn the dissidents he’d met behind bars, Gershkovich said that no one knew them publicly but that they had various political beliefs. “They’re not all Navalny supporters,” he added.
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