“After my talks with President Vladimir Putin, Russia agreed to release him, primarily on humanitarian grounds,” D. Trump wrote on his platform “Truth Social.”
He added a photo to his post showing R. Gilman in the airplane cabin with several other smiling people holding a US flag. The former US Marine is wearing a baseball cap in the photo and looks exhausted.
“We appreciate this decision and that Russia asked for nothing in return (for the release) – there was no exchange,” D. Trump wrote.
The US State Department earlier reported that former US Marine R. Gilman, imprisoned in Russia, was released “for humanitarian reasons.”
“Mr. Gilman’s release was not related to a prisoner exchange, nor were any other concessions made,” a department spokesperson said in an email.
“The Russian government released Mr. Gilman for humanitarian reasons,” the letter stated.
In 2022, a Russian court sentenced R. Gilman to one and a half years in prison for assaulting a police officer. Later, his sentence was extended to 10 years for violence against prison officers.
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The State Department confirmed that he was recently classified among those “wrongfully detained” in Russia.
R. Gilman’s sister Lexie Hudson recently mentioned his severely deteriorated health condition in a statement and urged his urgent release.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also thanked Russia in his statement for cooperating with special envoy Steve Witkoff to secure R. Gilman’s release “and for giving him the opportunity to receive necessary medical care here in the United States.”
M. Rubio noted that while the Trump administration welcomes this “positive step,” it still seeks “the immediate return of all other wrongfully detained Americans, including wrongfully detained Stephen Hubbard.”
S. Hubbard, a retiree and former English teacher, was sentenced in a closed court trial in October 2024 to nearly seven years in prison for “mercenary activities” in favor of Ukraine. He denies these charges.
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