Russia has freed former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman following talks between Presidents Trump and Putin. Gilman was pardoned due to deteriorating health and is already en route to the United States.
Russia on Tuesday released American citizen Robert Gilman, a former U.S. Marine imprisoned since 2022, U.S. President Donald Trump announced. The release came after a direct conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Moscow did not ask for anything in return.
"We appreciate this decision and the fact that Russia did not ask for anyone in return, there was no exchange whatsoever," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. U.S. officials confirmed that Putin granted a pardon to the 32-year-old Gilman due to his deteriorating health.
Gilman had been held in the city of Voronezh, located about 550 kilometers south of Moscow. The exact circumstances of his medical condition have not been publicly disclosed, but the White House and the State Department had urged Moscow to release him so he could travel to the United States for treatment.
According to U.S. officials, Gilman had already left Russia on Tuesday aboard a State Department aircraft. His flight is being tracked to Washington Dulles International Airport, where his return home is expected.
Robert Gilman served as a U.S. Marine from August 2019 to August 2020. He was arrested in January 2022 in Voronezh while traveling by train. Russian state media reported that he was detained on charges of striking a police officer while intoxicated.
After trial, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Gilman was one of at least ten American citizens known to have been imprisoned in Russia during that period.
His release without an exchange represents a rare instance of direct cooperation between Washington and Moscow amid strained bilateral relations.
