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Russia Frees US Marine Robert Gilman After More Than Four Years in Prison
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Moscow has freed former US Marine Robert Gilman, who had been imprisoned in Russia since 2022, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin granted him a pardon on “humanitarian grounds,” Reuters reported on August 11.
His release follows growing international alarm over his deteriorating condition while in Russian custody. In late June, Gilman was transferred from a prison medical unit in Voronezh to a civilian psychiatric ward in a “dissociative stupor,” leaving him unable to communicate and reliant on tube feeding.
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Advocacy groups have warned that he had been subjected to torture and mind-altering drugs. The White House and US State Department launched repeated appeals demanding his immediate release for emergency medical treatment in the United States.
The 32-year-old American is currently flying from Russia to Washington Dulles Airport aboard a State Department plane, accompanied by his mother, Nina, and four doctors evaluating him mid-flight.
A US official who spoke directly with Gilman reported that he was walking, talking, and appeared to be in “good shape” considering the circumstances, Reuters wrote.
Senior Russian official Yuri Ushakov informed Trump aides last week that Putin had agreed to sign the pardon as a “goodwill gesture” linked to his friendship with the president. US officials explicitly noted that no Russian prisoners were exchanged to secure his freedom, the publication stated.
Upon his arrival at Dulles, Gilman is expected to be greeted by US envoy Steve Witkoff and deputy national security adviser Sebastian Gorka, who both lobbied for his release alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Adam Boehler, and Jared Kushner.
Afterward, Gilman is slated to be flown to a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, Texas, for comprehensive medical treatment.
Gilman, who served in the Marines from 2019 to 2020, was arrested in January 2022 while traveling by train in Russia’s Voronezh. Russian state media alleged he drunkenly kicked a police officer.
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However, in an October 2024 op-ed, his father, Vladimir Gilman, asserted the charges were fabricated, stating his son had fallen ill, accidentally kicked the officer, and that the officer—who was uninjured and presented no evidence at trial—had actually dropped the charges.
Despite this, Gilman was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, becoming one of at least 10 Americans known to be held in Russian captivity, Reuters reported.
Gilman’s unilateral release marks a rare departure from Moscow’s usual diplomatic playbook, which typically requires high-stakes prisoner swaps to secure the freedom of detained Americans. In February 2025, for instance, the US secured the release of former embassy staffer Mark Fogel—who was serving a 14-year sentence over medical cannabis—only by exchanging him for Russian cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik.
Vinnik had been extradited to the US on charges of laundering billions of dollars through a cryptocurrency exchange before being traded back to Moscow.
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