Former US Marine Robert Gilman released by Russia without prisoner swap

Former US Marine Robert Gilman has been released from Russian custody and is returning to the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin granted him a pardon on humanitarian grounds following intense weekend negotiations. Russia did not seek anything in return, making it highly unusual for modern geopolitics, where conflicting nations perform prisoner swap.

Robert Gilman, 32, is expected to return to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, DC, on Tuesday night, US President Donald Trump said in his Truth Social post.

“After my discussions with President Vladimir Putin, Russia has agreed to release him, very much on a Humanitarian Basis. We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place. Robert will land at Andrews Air Force Base, in Washington, D.C., tonight, where my Representatives, some of whom are on the plane with him, will welcome Robert back to THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!” wrote Trump.

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Gilman was an English teacher and briefly served in the US Marine Corps from 2019 to 2020. According to Russian state media, he was arrested in January 2022 in Voronezh, Russia, after being accused of kicking a police officer while drunk on a train. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison, though his family has consistently denied the allegations against him. The sentence was later extended to 10 years due to alleged in-custody incidents.

Robert's father, Vladimir Gilman, who emigrated to Massachusetts from Russia, wrote in an October 2024 Boston ⁠Globe op-ed that the charges were false and his son had fallen ill during the time of the incident. He had accidentally kicked the officer, who did not suffer any injury. The officer dropped the charges and did not present evidence at Gilman’s trial, he wrote.

The exact condition of Gilman's health is unclear. His family told Reuters he had been transferred from a prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital in late June in a catatonic-like state that doctors assessed as a “dissociative stupor”.

The US government has recently designated Gilman as wrongfully detained. Gilman is one of the 10 known Americans to be imprisoned by Russia.