WSJ's Gershkovich publishes first story since release from Russian prison

The big picture: Before Thursday, Gershkovich's last story for the paper was on March 28, 2023 — just before he was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in the city of Yekaterinburg.

• The new story Gershkovich published Thursday alongside several of his colleagues is a deep dive into the spy unit responsible for his arrest, known as the Department for Counterintelligence Operations (DRKO).
• The DRKO is the "Kremlin's most elite security force" and "responsible for "surveilling, intimidating, or arresting foreigners and the Russians it suspects of working with them," Gershkovich and his colleagues wrote.

State of play: Gershkovich was the first journalist to be arrested and stand trial on espionage charges since the Cold War.

• The U.S. State Department officially declared him "wrongfully detained," as Gershkovich spent more than a year in pretrial detention, primarily at Moscow's infamous Lefortovo prison.
• In July, following a speedy closed door trial — resembling the sort of sham trials faced by other critics of the Kremlin — Gershkovich was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

• Weeks later, he was released alongside former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan as part of the largest prisoner exchange between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Go deeper:

• Russia frees Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan in major prisoner swap with U.S.
• Evan Gershkovich timeline: "Wrongfully detained" and on trial in Russia