Russia Releases Ailing Ex-US Marine Robert Gilman on Humanitarian Grounds
Russia has freed former US Marine Robert Gilman, who was jailed in 2022. He is now en route to the US for medical care.
Moscow has released Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old former US Marine who had been imprisoned in Russia since 2022, following a presidential pardon approved by Vladimir Putin on humanitarian grounds. US officials confirmed his release on Tuesday, saying he was aboard a State Department plane bound for Washington Dulles Airport.
Gilman, who was held in a prison in Voronezh, roughly 550 kilometers south of Moscow, had been the subject of sustained appeals from the White House and State Department, which urged Russian authorities to allow him to return home for medical treatment. The exact nature of his condition has not been officially disclosed, but an advocacy group representing his family said last week that he had been moved in late June from a prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital, where he was assessed as being in a "dissociative stupor."
A US official who spoke with Gilman after his release said he was walking and talking, adding that "all things considered he seems to be in good shape." Four doctors were on board the flight to evaluate him during the journey. His mother, Nina, was also traveling with him.
Upon arrival at Dulles, Gilman is expected to be greeted by US envoy Steve Witkoff and deputy national security adviser Sebastian Gorka, both of whom had worked for his release alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials. He will then be flown to a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, Texas, for treatment.
Gilman, who served in the Marines from August 2019 to August 2020, was arrested in January 2022 in Voronezh. Russian state media reported that he was detained for allegedly kicking a police officer while drunk. His father, however, has publicly disputed the charges, writing in a Boston Globe op-ed that his son had fallen ill during the incident and accidentally kicked the officer, who was uninjured and later dropped the charges. Gilman was sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
US officials said a senior Russian official informed Trump aides last week that Putin had agreed to sign a pardon decree, citing the president's friendship with Putin. The release followed intense negotiations over the weekend. Officials emphasized that no Russian prisoners were exchanged in return for Gilman's freedom, describing the move as "a goodwill gesture."