The strategy to get WSJ’s Gershkovich out of a Russian jail

Charlotte Alter of Time magazine writes about the effort to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, currently in a Russian jail for nearly a year.

Alter writes, “Beckett spent the next 36 hours wrangling government support. ‘It was important to us that the message come from the White House as quickly as possible that he is not a spy,’ Beckett says. Tucker embarked on a media tour. ‘Someone along the way gave us the advice that ‘There are moments to be loud and moments to be quiet, and this is a moment to be loud,’’ Beckett says. ‘That became a bit of a mantra.’

“The legal team at Dow Jones focused on getting Gershkovich the right representation—a challenge complicated by the withdrawal of most Western law firms from Russia. One hurdle was finding a good lawyer who also wasn’t ‘politically aligned in one way or another,’ recalls Jay Conti, Dow Jones’ general counsel. ‘You don’t want that to be a signal.’

“When Harris called Gershkovich’s family to tell them Evan had gone missing, his mother was the one who answered the phone. ‘I’ve never experienced anything like it,’ Milman says. ‘It’s a shock.’ Harris promised to call Milman every hour, whether there was news or not, and to update her as soon as she heard anything. ‘Time stops,’ Mikhail recalls. ‘It’s hard to breathe.'”

Read more here.