Ex-Marine Robert Gilman tried to get out of a Russian prison by volunteering for the invasion of Ukraine. He got out on humanitarian grounds instead — so what does Putin want in return?

Russia has released Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old American whom a court had sentenced to 10 years in a penal colony. Gilman was detained in Voronezh in January 2022. According to the Russian authorities, he kicked a police officer in the leg after being pulled off a train for causing a drunken disturbance. The court first gave him four and a half years, then raised the term to 10 over claims that he had attacked guards and an investigator behind bars.