Edmund Pope tasted freedom today for the first time in more than eight months.
Pope is the American businessman who was convicted last week on spying charges and sentenced to 20 years in a Russian prison.
He denied any wrongdoing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned him for health reasons.
Pope was flown to the U.S. military base at Ramstein, Germany.
He will spend the next several days at the medical center there before he returns home with his wife Sherry.
Pope was in remission from a rare form of bone cancer when he was arrested in Russia.
Doctors will examine him for signs that the cancer may have come back while he [was] awaiting trial in a Russian jail.
A spokeswoman said that Pope was suffering from malnutrition and high blood pressure.