The Bowdoin College community expressed great relief Thursday at the release of journalist and alumnus Evan Gershkovich from a Russian prison.
Gershkovich had been detained in the country for more than a year on espionage charges that the U.S. government and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, had maintained were fabricated. He had recently been sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security Russian prison.
“We are deeply relieved and overjoyed to learn of Evan’s release from wrongful detention in Russia, where he was doing his job as a journalist,” said Bowdoin College President Safa R. Zaki on Thursday.
Zaki continued, “We are grateful to everyone who supported Evan during these last sixteen months, including his Bowdoin classmates and friends, other alumni, government officials, and his colleagues at The Wall Street Journal, who never lost sight of his ordeal and who advocated for his release from the moment he was detained. Our hearts are with Evan and his family as they reunite and celebrate his long overdue freedom.”
Gershkovich’s release was a part of the largest Russian-American prisoner swap since the Cold War, freeing two dozen total people, including a second American: corporate security executive Paul Whelan of Michigan.
Gershkovich graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin College in Brunswick. His classmates and professors have described him as a curious, extroverted and kind-hearted person who has a deep passion for journalism.
Members of Maine’s congressional delegation also celebrated Gershkovich’s release on Thursday.
