Russian court adds extra year to sentence of US citizen jailed for attacking law enforcement, RIA says

A Russian court on Thursday added an extra year to the sentence of Robert Gilman, a U.S. citizen and ex-Marine imprisoned in Russia for repeatedly assaulting law enforcement officers and a prison official, state news agency RIA reported.

RIA cited the press service of the court in Voronezh, the southern Russian city where Gilman is incarcerated, as saying that an extra year had been added to his sentence, which it said is now eight years and one month.

RIA did not give a reason for the extra year being added.

Neither Gilman nor his legal team could be reached for comment.

In October 2024, Gilman pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years and one month in prison for assaulting a prison official and a state investigator while imprisoned for a 2022 drunken assault on a police officer, for which he received a 3.5 year sentence.

During his second trial, RIA cited Gilman as telling the court that he had been forced to use violence after the prison inspector had caused pain to his genitalia and after the investigator had insulted his father.

Russian media have previously cited Gilman's lawyers as saying that he originally came to Russia to study and obtain citizenship.

Gilman is one of around 10 U.S. nationals behind bars in Russia.

A prisoner swap earlier this month freed Kseniya Karelina, a dual Russian-U.S. citizen and Los Angeles spa worker, who had been serving a 12-year sentence for treason for donating just over $50 to a New York-based charity providing humanitarian support to Ukraine.