WASHINGTON - Moscow on Tuesday freed a former U.S. Marine jailed in Russia since 2022 after Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a pardon for the ailing American based on humanitarian reasons, U.S. officials said.
The White House and the State Department had urged Moscow to release Robert Gilman, 32, so he can receive medical treatment in the United States.
Gilman was being held in a prison in Voronezh, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) south of Moscow. The exact circumstances of his health are unclear.
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But Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer of Global Reach, an advocacy group representing Gilman's family, told Reuters last week that Gilman was moved in late June from the prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital in a catatonic-like state assessed as a "dissociative stupor."
The U.S. officials said Gilman on Tuesday was on a State Department plane carrying him from Russia to Washington Dulles Airport.
A U.S. official who spoke to Gilman said he was walking and talking.
"All things considered he seems to be in good shape," the official said.
Gilman will be evaluated on the flight by four doctors, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. His mother, Nina, was also on board.
The U.S. officials said Gilman, upon arrival at Dulles, will be greeted by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and deputy national security adviser Sebastian Gorka, both of whom had sought Gilman's release along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and other officials.
After that, Gilman is to be flown to a rehabilitation center in San Antonio, Texas, for medical treatment, the officials said.
ARRESTED OVER POLICE OFFICER INCIDENT
Gilman, who served in the U.S. Marines from August 2019 until August 2020, was traveling by train when he was arrested in January 2022 in Voronezh, Lebson said.
He was detained for allegedly kicking a police officer while drunk, according to Russian state media.
However, his father, Vladimir Gilman, who emigrated to Massachusetts from Russia, wrote in an October 2024 Boston Globe op-ed that the charges were false.
His son, he said, had fallen ill when the incident occurred and accidentally kicked the officer. The officer was uninjured, dropped the charges, and did not present evidence at Gilman's trial, he wrote.
Robert Gilman was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in jail. He was one of at least 10 Americans known to be imprisoned in Russia.
The U.S. officials said a Russian senior official, Yuri Ushakov, informed Trump aides last week that Putin had agreed to sign a decree pardoning Gilman for humanitarian purposes, given Putin's friendship with the president.
The release resulted from intense negotiations over the weekend by U.S. and Russian officials. The U.S. did not exchange any Russian prisoners in order to gain Gilman's release, the officials said.
"It's a goodwill gesture," one official said.
