Evan Gershkovich’s most tireless advocate to secure his release: his mother

There has been a lot of talk about the public relations efforts involved in the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the US since the cold war. Officials from seven different countries have dedicated years to making phone calls and having confidential meetings in distant cities.

However, after Evan Gershkovich, the once-incarcerated journalist from the Wall Street Journal, along with other individuals arrived in Maryland on Thursday, additional information has surfaced regarding the involvement of a key figure in this endeavor: his mother.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Ella Milman has been very busy over the past 16 months since March 2023. During this time, her son was arrested in Russia on espionage charges. She has been actively participating in both public and private diplomacy, attending meetings, appearing on talk shows, and even approaching Joe Biden at a dinner event.

The exchange between Russia and the US on Thursday resulted in the release of 16 individuals from Russian jails. In return, eight Russian adults and two minors who were detained overseas were sent back to Russia. Among those returned was Vadim Krasikov, the assassin who had been imprisoned in Germany since 2019 for the killing of a Chechen exile in Berlin.

Gershkovich, the Journal, and the White House have all rejected the accusations against the reporter as baseless from the start.

As efforts were made to help him regain his freedom, Milman played a key role in the process, showing her influence. She arranged meetings with important leaders, established connections with supportive contacts in the US and other countries, collaborated frequently with the legal and leadership teams at the Wall Street Journal, and dedicated time to researching and analyzing similar cases of American citizens held in Russia.

Milman grew up in the city of Leningrad, just like Putin. Her mother, who was Jewish, had helped Holocaust survivors when she was a nurse in Poland during the war. Her father, who was a medic in the Soviet army, had made it to Berlin in 1945.

During the time her son was held in Russia, she sent him letters every week, as per the Journal. These letters detailed the story of a family that had lived through the Russian civil war, World War II, and anti-Jewish sentiment in the Soviet Union.

"It's our time to shine now," she penned.

She also looked into potential swaps of prisoners, focusing on a man named Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin serving time in Berlin for murder. During those 16 months, Milman delved into Krasikov's situation, believing he might hold the answer to getting her son released.

Krasikov had been imprisoned in Germany since 2019 for the killing of a Chechen exile in Berlin. In their letters, Milman and Gershkovich referred to Krasikov using a secret nickname: "the German".

During this time, Milman consistently went on TV programs to talk about her son's situation and urge government officials to help. In April of last year, while at a dinner for White House correspondents, Milman personally approached Biden. She pleaded with him, saying "You are the only hope to bring my son back." This information was reported by the newspaper.

A few months later, Milman and her husband went to Moscow for Gershkovich's appeal hearing, even though the FBI had warned them that they could be arrested, according to the Journal. While there, she agreed to be questioned and spent hours answering Russian officials' inquiries about her son.

In September, the Journal was able to get Milman into a fancy dinner in New York. While there, she went up to the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and begged him to help release her son. The chancellor assured her, saying, "We are assisting. We are taking action."

In January, while US government officials were still negotiating with foreign governments like Germany and Russia to finalize an agreement, Milman went to the World Economic Forum. There, she spoke with Scholz's right-hand person to seek help.

He promised to assist and then conversed with Biden over the phone later that day to arrange a meeting to talk about the issue, as reported by the Journal.

Following a television interview in February where Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the possibility of a prison swap involving Gershkovich and Krasikov, Scholz traveled to the United States to meet with President Biden, as reported by the Journal. During their meeting, they officially decided to investigate the potential of using Krasikov as the main figure in a deal that would result in the release of multiple prisoners.

In May, Milman once again went to the White House correspondents' dinner and advised Biden to contact the German leader in order to advance the deal. Two days later, the president followed Milman's advice and made a formal request to Scholz, providing the chancellor with the means necessary to finalize the agreement.

This week, Milman was asked to attend a last-minute meeting at the White House on Thursday at 10:30am. She was instructed to bring her husband and daughter. Later that day, her son was back at home.