Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has returned to the US after more than a year in a Russian prison, as part of a complex prisoner swap that was the largest of its kind since the cold war.

Gershkovich, who was arrested last year while on a reporting assignment in Russia, arrived late on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where he was greeted by President Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris, before hugging his mother, Ella Milman.

His release was secured as part of an exchange in Ankara, Turkey, and involved 26 prisoners and seven countries. It was the culmination of months of painstaking diplomacy that also drew in Germany, Norway, Poland and Slovenia, according to security officials in multiple countries. Turkish officials said Belarus was also involved.