By Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay
WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Russia on Tuesday freed a former American Marine who had been jailed in the country since 2022, U.S. President Donald Trump said.
In a social media post, Trump said Russia agreed to release Robert Gilman, 32, for humanitarian reasons after discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that the ailing American would arrive at Joint Base Andrews near Washington on Tuesday night.
“I am proud to announce that American Citizen Robert Gilman, a former United States Marine, is coming HOME!” Trump said. “We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place.”
The White House and the State Department had urged Moscow to release Gilman so he could receive medical treatment in the United States. U.S. officials said Putin approved a pardon for him.
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.
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.”
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.
Trump’s post included a photo of a gaunt-looking man on a plane surrounded by a group of smiling people carrying an American flag. The president said he had spoken to Gilman, who requested a cheeseburger upon landing.
“I will take care of that!” Trump said.
Gilman will be evaluated on the flight by four doctors, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
After that, Gilman is likely 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 and no concessions were made, the officials said.
“It’s a goodwill gesture,” one official said.
Trump thanked U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and U.S. special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler for making the release possible.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Gilman is among 100 U.S. citizens whose freedom Trump has helped secure during his second term in office. Rubio said the U.S. appreciated the “positive step,” but called for the release of other Americans who he said were unjustly detained in Russia, including Stephen Hubbard.
Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced in October 2024 to almost seven years in a penal colony after a court found him guilty of serving in a Ukrainian territorial defense unit against Russian forces, tasked with manning a checkpoint.
Hubbard denied the charge.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Ismail Shakil and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Rosalba O’Brien)
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