Robert Gilman, a former US Marine held in Russia since 2022, is back on American soil after President Donald Trump announced his release on humanitarian grounds. He arrived to a welcome that included two familiar comforts: hamburgers and milkshakes.
Trump said Russia had agreed to free the 32-year-old following discussions with President Vladimir Putin. The announcement came in a social media post as negotiations between the two countries continued against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
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A State Department aircraft carrying Gilman landed late yesterday at Dulles airport, outside Washington.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who assisted in the negotiations, met Gilman at the airport with the food. “He can now fully return to his family and receive the medical care he needs,” Witkoff said.
Witkoff also thanked Putin online for granting the pardon “and for his personal engagement throughout this process”.
US officials said Moscow did not seek concessions in exchange for Gilman’s release. Trump has continued to engage with Putin despite the deep tensions surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Gilman had been held at a prison in Voronezh, roughly 550km south of Moscow. Officials have provided few details about his medical condition.
Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer of Global Reach, an advocacy organisation representing Gilman’s family, told Reuters last week that Gilman had been transferred in late June from the prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital. He was reportedly in a catatonic-like state that doctors described as a “dissociative stupor”.
Robert Gilman had been held in a prison in Voronezh, about 550km south of Moscow (Credit: Steve Witkoff via X)
A US official who spoke with Gilman said he was able to walk and hold a conversation.
“All things considered, he seems to be in good shape,” the official said.
Trump’s post included a photograph of a gaunt-looking Gilman aboard the plane, surrounded by smiling people and an American flag. The president said he had spoken with Gilman, who asked for a cheeseburger after landing.
“I will take care of that!” Trump wrote.
Four doctors were scheduled to assess Gilman during the flight, according to US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
After stopping at Dulles, Gilman was expected to travel to a rehabilitation centre in San Antonio, Texas, where he would receive medical treatment, one official said.
US officials said Russia sought no concessions in return for the release (Credit: Steve Witkoff via X)
Arrested over police officer incident
Gilman, who served in the US Marines from August 2019 to August 2020, was travelling by train when he was arrested in Voronezh in January 2022, Lebson said.
Russian state media reported that he had been accused of kicking a police officer while intoxicated.
His father, Vladimir Gilman, who emigrated from Russia to Massachusetts, disputed that account in an October 2024 opinion article in The Boston Globe. He said his son had become ill during the incident and kicked the officer accidentally. According to his father, the officer was not injured, later dropped the charges and provided no evidence at Gilman’s trial.
Gilman was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He was among at least 10 Americans known to be incarcerated in Russia.
US officials said Yuri Ushakov, a senior Russian official, told Trump’s aides last week that Putin had agreed to issue a decree pardoning Gilman on humanitarian grounds, citing the Russian leader’s friendship with the president.
The agreement followed intensive negotiations between American and Russian officials over the weekend. The United States did not release a Russian prisoner or offer other concessions in return for Gilman’s freedom, officials said.
“It’s a goodwill gesture,” one official said.
Trump credited Witkoff, senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and US special envoy for hostage response Adam Boehler with helping secure the release. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Gilman was one of 100 US citizens whose freedom Trump had helped secure during his second term.
Rubio welcomed the “positive step” but urged Russia to release other Americans he said were being unjustly detained, including Stephen Hubbard.
Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced in October 2024 to nearly seven years in a penal colony after a Russian court convicted him of serving with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit against Russian forces. Prosecutors said he had been assigned to man a checkpoint.
Hubbard has denied the allegation.
