Kieran Ramsey, the chief investigative officer for Global Reach, detailed the horrific conditions U.S. Marine veteran Robert Gilman experienced while wrongfully detained by Russia and urged the immediate release of five other Americans held in Russia in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Ramsey, who worked with U.S. authorities to secure Gilman’s release after 1,666 days in a Russian prison, praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure Gilman’s return on humanitarian grounds.
“Mr. Gilman’s home, no doubt, because of the leadership from President Trump. He made a full court press with his senior most team requesting that the Russians release him on a humanitarian basis, which is exactly what happened. And no doubt it was the work of some good, quiet diplomacy on the part of people like Steve Witkoff, his special envoy and Secretary Rubio, and even the CIA director was involved,” Ramsey told Fox News Digital.
Gilman was released to U.S. authorities on Tuesday after Russian police arrested him in the city of Voronezh in 2022 after he made an unplanned diversion to Russia on his way to a new teaching job in Moldova. Ramsey detailed the circumstances that led to his arrest.
“The start of this horrific nightmare comes from the fact that he was actually transiting Moscow. He never intended to stay or visit Russia. He was en route to a new teaching job in Moldova. And while en route, he became really sick. He had to stay and recuperate. And he does have some extended family in Russia. His father had immigrated from Russia years ago. So after he recuperated to where at least he thought he was well enough, he decided to go to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to renew his passport. But again, en route to the embassy, he became violently ill and that’s where Russian police came upon him, thought he was drunk, assaulted him, said that he assaulted them, and then it just snowballed from there,” Ramsey revealed.
Ramsey also revealed the treatment Gilman received while in a Russian prison, which included an extensive campaign of beatings and apparent psychological torture.
“Never have we seen the treatment that Mr. Gilman suffered as bad as anybody else. He was provoked in prison. He was beaten in prison, He was forced to exercise, he was forced to fight, and then he was told just some crazy things like, you know, there was a hit team to go assault his father in Boston. And things like that, when they’re all together and you’re cut off from the outside world and you have no idea if there’s any hope, you can imagine how that compounds on somebody,” Ramsey explained.
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When asked if there was any legitimacy to the Boston hit team, Ramsey said “totally psychological mumbo-jumbo disinformation campaign to make him feel awful.”
Gilman, Ramsey told Fox News Digital, is now recuperating in a U.S. hospital alongside family, and while he “still has a long road to go,” was able to receive immediate medical care thanks, in part, to the State Department designating him as a wrongful detainee.
But Global Reach is representing five other Americans detained in Russia who Ramsey argues also deserve that status and have yet to receive it.
“All five of those we would assert are wrongfully detained do meet the criteria under the Rob
