Former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman has been released from prison in Russia and flown toward the United States. President Donald Trump announced the release and said no prisoner exchange took place.
DR reports that Trump announced the release in a post on his own platform, Truth Social. He wrote that Russia agreed to free Gilman after his conversations with President Vladimir Putin, largely for humanitarian reasons. Trump added that Russia asked for nothing in return.
According to Trump, Gilman was on a U.S. aircraft bound for Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. He was accompanied by his mother and American officials. Trump published a photograph from on board the plane.
The BBC reports that Gilman was expected to be taken to a military hospital in Texas for evaluation and treatment. ABC News, citing the Associated Press, reports that the State Department confirmed the release on humanitarian grounds and said no concessions were made.
Detained since 2022
Gilman was arrested in the Russian city of Voronezh in January 2022 while traveling by train. Russian state media said he kicked a police officer while intoxicated, an account rejected by his family. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison in Voronezh, about 500 kilometers south of Moscow.
In a 2024 opinion piece in The Boston Globe, his father, Vladimir Gilman, wrote that his son was ill at the time and kicked the officer by accident. That account is cited by The Guardian. USA Today notes that the release came before the sentence was completed.
Concern about Gilman’s health had grown in recent weeks, and the U.S. State Department urged Russia to release him for medical treatment in the United States, per The Guardian. The organization Global Reach told Reuters last week that Gilman was moved in late June from a prison hospital to a psychiatric ward. Eric Lebson of Global Reach described a condition resembling catatonia, assessed by doctors as a dissociative stupor.
The exact circumstances of his health remain unclear. An official told Reuters that Gilman was able to walk and talk on Tuesday. The Moscow Times, citing Reuters, described the release as a pardon approved by Putin.
Reuters reporting cited by Meduza said the case became urgent as his health deteriorated sharply, with his family fearing he was near death. The same reporting said U.S. officials raised his case with Russian officials in July.
According to Reuters, the State Department now hopes to secure the release of more Americans it describes as wrongfully detained in Russia. One is retired schoolteacher Stephen Hubbard, jailed since 2024 and sentenced to nearly seven years in a penal colony. Both Reuters and The Guardian report that Gilman was among at least 10 Americans known to be imprisoned in Russia.
Shortly after Trump returned to the White House, his administration secured the release of U.S. citizen Marc Fogel. In that case, the United States freed Russian national Alexander Vinnik, then imprisoned in the U.S. for money laundering.
