Former US Marine released from Russia after over 4 year incarceration on disputed charges

Massachusetts teacher and former Marine Robert Gilman was on his way home to the U.S. on Tuesday after over four years of what U.S. officials have said was “wrongful incarceration” in Russia and a recent life-threatening downturn in his health.

Gilman, 32, of Lowell, Massachusetts, was first detained in 2022 in Russia on disputed charges, before having his prison sentence extended several times. After a recent decline in his health, President Donald Trump reached an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the American “very much on a Humanitarian Basis,” Trump said.

“We appreciate this decision, and the fact that Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform Tuesday.

Five other Americans remain imprisoned in Russia with deteriorating medical issues as arrests of U.S. citizens has become increasingly common in the country in recent years, according to a news release from Global Reach, a group that’s been working to free them.

“It is my belief that public awareness and public pressure helped bring Robert home today,” Sen. Ed Markey said in Boston Tuesday. “Over the past two years, my office has been working closely with the family of Robert Gilman, a Massachusetts resident raised in Lowell, who was wrongfully detained in Russia on questionable charges for 1,166 days. Wrongfully detained by the Russian government. No charges were in fact backed up by evidence.”

Markey, who spoke to Gilman’s father Tuesday, said the former Marine was on a plane to the U.S. with his mother to be taken to a military hospital in Texas for treatment. Without care in the U.S., the senator said, Gilman’s detainment would “have been ultimately a life sentence.”

During his time in Russia, Gilman was subjected to “physical torture, forced medication, and provocations by the Russian government,” Markey said.

Gilman was diagnosed with a dissociative stupor in which he was non-responsive and unable to interact or eat about 50 days prior to his release, according to Markey.  He also suffered a severe case of pneumonia.

Gilman’s lawyer Irina Brazhnikova told  Russian news agency Interfax that the American had been held in a psychiatric ward of a civilian hospital since early July, where neither his lawyers or family were allowed to visit as doctors reported his worsening condition.

“We do not know yet the full details of his current condition, of the long-term impact on his recovery,” Markey said Tuesday.

In 2022, Gilman was first detained on charges of beating a police officer after being taken off a train for causing a disturbance and sentenced to 3.5 years. His sentence was extended ultimately to 10 years in December after subsequent convictions of attacking a prison inspector during a cell check, beating an investigator, and assaulting prison guards.

Russian media reported Gilman pleaded guilty to the charges. Gilman’s father has disputed the charges and the U.S. has stated officials determined that Gilman was wrongfully detained.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a photo on social media of a gaunt-looking Gilman draped in an American flag and surrounded by his family aboard an airplane Tuesday.

Rubio stated the U.S. is “still seeking the immediate return of all other unjustly detained Americans.”

There are at least five more Americans who remain detained in Russia, Markey said, urging the Trump administration to “use Robert’s case as motivation to continue to advocate for the release of others wrongfully detained in Russia and around the world.”