Jubilation Inside The Wall Street Journal After Gershkovich Is Freed

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Early Thursday, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich sat to eat at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington before a day of celebration — a day they had been waiting to arrive for 16 months. They were joined by their daughter, Danielle, her husband, and executives from Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. Shortly, the family would be dropped off blocks away at the White House, where it expected to receive confirmation that the couple’s son, Evan Gershkovich, a foreign correspondent for The Journal, had been released from detainment in Russia as part of a prisoner swap involving seven countries. “There were jokes and anecdotes, but there was a palpable emotional load at that table,” Almar Latour, the chief executive of Dow Jones, which publishes The Journal, said in an interview. “We’ve all worked toward this moment, and the family of course has been an inspiration throughout.” Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 in Russia while on a reporting trip and imprisoned on charges of espionage. Mr. Gershkovich, The Journal and the U.S. government vehemently denied those accusations.