Relatives of ex-Marine Robert Gilman feared he was dying in a Russian psychiatric ward. This week, he boarded a plane for home.

Russian authorities have released Robert Gilman, 32, a former U.S. Marine who had been serving a sentence at a penal colony in Voronezh. Vladimir Putin pardoned Gilman on humanitarian grounds, according to Reuters. Washington had called on Moscow on August 7 to free the American so he could receive treatment at home.

Gilman’s family had grown worried about his condition. He had complained of being tortured and injected with mind-altering drugs, and relatives said he had been in a dissociative stupor since June. The former Marine was reportedly being fed through a tube, and his sister said she suspected he might be near death.

According to Reuters’s sources, Gilman boarded a State Department plane bound for Washington Dulles Airport on August 11. One of the agency’s sources said he had seen the former prisoner walking and talking.

Gilman’s Russian defense attorney, Irina Brazhnikova, told the Russian news agency Interfax that she had no information about his possible release but did not rule it out. “I don’t know anything, but it’s probably true. No one has notified me yet. As far as I know, he remains in the hospital [Gilman was transferred to the psychiatric ward of a civilian hospital in early July], and I still haven’t been allowed to see him,” she said.

Kirill Dmitriev, a special representative of the Russian president, later confirmed Gilman’s release.

Gilman was one of at least 10 Americans held in Russia. In May 2025, Reuters published a list of nine U.S. citizens Washington wanted returned as part of a possible prisoner exchange with Moscow. Gilman was on that list.