(NewsNation) — Colleagues of American journalist Evan Gershkovich are celebrating his return to the United States after he spent over a year in Russian detention.
Paul Beckett, assistant editor of The Wall Street Journal, was in the newsroom when WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker told the staff that Gershkovich was being released.
Beckett said his colleagues felt excitement and exhaustion, crying “tears of relief.”
“It was one of the greatest days in the history of the Wall Street Journal,” Beckett said during an appearance on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “It’s very rare that we have a colleague in such extreme distress. And the fact that he’s coming home, and eventually the newsroom, makes it all worthwhile. We’re incredibly grateful to President Biden and his team for getting him back.”
Gershkovich’s release Thursday was part of the biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history.
Moscow released Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.
FILE – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, left, stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the First Appeals Court of General Jurisdiction in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Arrests on charges of spying and collecting sensitive data have become increasingly frequent in Russia since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Recent high-profile arrests include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges in March 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) 
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 01: U.S. President Joe Biden, holding hands with Miriam Butorin, daughter of Alsu Kurmasheva, and joined by relatives of prisoners freed by Russia, delivers remarks on the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from Russian captivity, in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 01, 2024 in Washington, DC. The two, along with Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen and Radio Free Europe journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Washington Post columnist, and others were released in a prisoner exchange with Russia. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) 
Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, an American who has been detained in Russia for more than four years, stands in the gallery upon request from current speaker Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council headed by Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, serving as president of the council, Monday, April 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The trade unfolded despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Biden touted the exchange as a diplomatic feat, but some are concerned about the risk and reward in a swap this large.
“I think it’s illegitimate to swap innocent Americans for Russians who may include a KGB agent in Germany convicted of murder, among other things,” said John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “The price for America is high; every time you make a deal like this, the price gets higher.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
