Moscow on Tuesday freed a former US marine jailed in Russia since 2022 after Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a pardon for the ailing American based on humanitarian reasons, US officials said.
The White House and the State Department had urged Moscow to release Robert Gilman, 32, so he could receive medical treatment in the United States.
US President Donald Trump on Monday said a chat with Putin had led to Gilman’s release.
Gilman was being held in a prison in Voronezh, about 550km (340 miles) south of Moscow. The exact circumstances of his health are unclear.
But Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer of Global Reach, an advocacy group representing Gilman’s family, said last week that Gilman was moved in late June from the prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian emergency hospital in a catatonic-like state assessed as a “dissociative stupor”.
The US officials said Gilman on Tuesday was on a State Department plane carrying him from Russia to Washington Dulles Airport.