Former Marine Robert Gilman hospitalized in Russia, family fears for his life

Robert Gilman is in a Russian hospital in serious condition, and his advocate says the 32-year-old former Marine has fallen into what Eric Lebson of Global Reach described as a "dissociative stupor." His sister and two hostage-advocacy groups say the American detainee may be close to death after his condition worsened in Russian custody.

Gilman has been held in Russia since Jan. 17, 2022. A March 7, 2025 letter from Sen. Edward Markey to Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Gilman, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, had been in Russian custody since that date and that his family had applied for him to be designated as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. The Foley Foundation lists him as a currently detained wrongful detainee in Russia.

The latest medical crisis heightens the pressure around a case that already sits at the intersection of detention, diplomacy and family desperation. Hostage advocates have said Gilman slipped into a stupor in June, and his family has said he may be close to death. Those alarms have grown alongside earlier allegations that he was tortured and injected with mind-altering drugs, claims that underscore how badly deteriorated his condition has become.

Gilman’s case also shows the limits of Washington’s leverage when Americans are jailed in Russia. A wrongfully detained designation can push a case higher inside the U.S. government and intensify efforts to secure access and press for his welfare, but it does not give the United States direct control over Russia’s prisons or courts. Gilman has also been serving a prison sentence for assaulting a Russian police officer in 2022, a charge that has kept him inside Russia’s legal system even as his health has worsened.