Wall Street Journal reporter freed from jail asked Putin for interview

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was released from Russian captivity on Thursday as part of a major prisoner exchange, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for an interview shortly before his release, according to a report.
The journalist had to fill out an official clemency request addressed to Putin while in prison, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Gershkovich's employer.
"The pro forma printout included a long blank space the prisoner could fill out if desired, or simply, as expected, leave blank. In the formal high Russian he had honed over 16 months imprisonment, the Journal's Russia correspondent filled the page. The last line submitted a proposal of his own: After his release, would Putin be willing to sit down for an interview?" the newspaper wrote.
It is unclear how Putin responded.
Gershkovich, the WSJ's Russia correspondent, was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony for alleged espionage after he was detained in March 2023 during a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in the Ural region.
The WSJ vehemently denied the accusations against Gershkovich, and the US government, as well as his family and employer consistently demanded his release.
Thursday's historic exchange involved Russia, Belarus and several Western countries in a swap coordinated by the Turkish secret service MIT, with 26 prisoners handed over at Ankara airport.
Alongside Gershkovich, the exchange involved former US marine Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with dual US-Russia citizenship.
The swap also included German national Rico K, who had been sentenced to death in Belarus for alleged involvement in a bomb attack and then pardoned. Russians released from Russian detention included leading Kremlin critics such as Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin.