Overview
- Robert Gilman has been assessed in a dissociative stupor since June and is being fed through a tube, his sister and hostage‑advocacy groups say, and they warn he may be close to death.
- He was moved in late June from a prison hospital to the psychiatric ward of a civilian hospital in Voronezh and family members, his Russian lawyer and U.S. consular officials have been barred from visiting him there.
- Advocates allege Gilman endured harsh prison conditions, torture and injections of psychotropic drugs that preceded his collapse, though those claims have not been publicly verified by Russian officials.
- The State Department says it is 'deeply concerned,' the White House has pushed for his release, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the case with Russia’s foreign minister on July 23; the family requested a U.S. 'wrongfully detained' designation in March 2023 that has not been granted.
- Gilman is one of at least 10 Americans known to be jailed in Russia and his possible death would heighten bilateral tensions, a fear sharpened by comparisons to the Otto Warmbier case when a U.S. detainee died after release.