Washington | Jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich returned home on Thursday (Friday AEST) after being freed by Russia as part of a complex prisoner swap with the US and other countries that was the largest of its kind since the Cold War.

The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The freedom deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia.

Reuters