Edward Markey

“I just spoke to him, and he had one request — A GREAT cheeseburger when he lands. I will take care of that!” Trump said in a tweet posted Tuesday afternoon.

Gilman’s family said he was in a life-threatening, near catatonic state in a hospital in southwestern Russia, said Global Reach, the advocacy group, in a statement.

“I am so grateful to President Trump for saving my brother’s life,” said Lexie Hudson, Gilman’s sister, in the statement. “There is no other reason that Robert is alive today other than that President Trump heard about the case and took action.”

Hudson also thanked Sen. Ed Markey, who has worked closely with the family to return Gilman to the US, for “leading our advocacy efforts in Congress.”

“It is a tragedy that it took Robert’s near-death condition for his case to receive the attention that it required for his release to be negotiated,” Markey said in a Tuesday statement. “I urge 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.”

After arriving in Washington D.C., Gilman will then travel to a US military hospital in Texas to be treated, Reuters reported. One US official, who reportedly spoke to Gilman, said he was walking and talking.

“All things ​considered he seems to be in good shape,” the official told Reuters.

The officials, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said Gilman would be evaluated on the flight by a team of doctors. Gilman’s mother, Nina, was also on board the flight.

While traveling through Russia in January 2022, Gilman was imprisoned for reportedly beating a police officer. At the time, Russian state-run media outlet TASS reported that Gilman was under the influence of substances and “disturbing the peace,” and that he kicked an officer in the leg when taken to a police station.

Gilman’s father, Vladimir, disputed the story in an October 2024 letter to the editor in The Boston Globe. Vladimir said his son grew ill and collapsed while on a train, after which he was detained. He was quickly released and given a Russian visa to recuperate.

After that, Gilman reportedly noticed his passport was missing several pages. He went to the US Embassy to have it repaired, but became sick again on the way and accidentally bumped into a police officer. He was issued a 3½-year prison sentence for beating the officer despite the officer being uninjured and dropping all charges, according to Vladimir.

Since then, Gilman’s family said a “series of vague and escalating charges” were added to increase his sentence, much of which he was “goaded” into “through forced drugging, provocations, and torture” in prison.

In early July, Gilman fell into a dissociative stupor, a condition in which a person becomes unresponsive as a result of intense stress, and was moved from prison to a civilian hospital, according to his family.

Eric Lebson, Chief Strategy Officer for the nonprofit Global Reach, which has been working to support the Gilman family, said in a statement that five other Americans are still being held in Russia and each of them has a medical situation that is moving in the same direction as Gilman.

“It is critical that the Administration uses the momentum of Robert’s release to bring home Aleksandr Antonov, David Barnes, Olga Jezler, Andre Khachatoorian, and Chuck Zimmerman before it is too late,” he said.