Marc Fogel: US schoolteacher released by Russia 
2025-02-12
Category: news

American schoolteacher and former diplomat Marc Fogel has been released from prison in Russia and is on his way home to the US, according to the White House.Mr Fogel's release was negotiated as part of an exchange with Russia, said US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, without providing further details.He said Mr Fogel, 63, was on a plane with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, and would be reunited with his family by Tuesday evening. Russia did not immediately comment on the matter. Mr Fogel's sister has told the BBC of her "great relief" at his freedom.
"I plan to celebrate through the next 24 hours," Anne Fogel said. "We're so happy."She said her brother was moved last Wednesday from a penal colony in Rybinsk, and the family knew his release was a possibility, but also that "these negotiations are very tenuous".  He is flying into Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington DC, where he will see his wife and children, Ms Fogel said. In a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, his wife Jane and sons Ethan and Sam said: "This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal." Mr Fogel was arrested at an airport for illegal possession of cannabis in 2021.He was charged with carrying a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the US, and given a 14-year prison sentence. Mr Fogel's legal team thanked Trump for his role in the negotiation and criticised what they called the "bureaucratic inaction" of the previous Biden administration."President Trump secured Marc's release in just a few weeks, wasting no time in taking decisive action to bring Marc home," a statement from his lawyers, also sent to CBS, said.Mr Fogel wasn't classed by the US government as wrongfully detained until December 2024, despite beginning his sentence in 2022.His family had tried to push former President Joe Biden to secure his release, and were left disappointed when he was left out of prisoner exchanges in 2022 and 2024.
US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia on a similar charge of cannabis possession in 2022, was freed in an exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout 10 months later.Subsequently, the Biden administration secured the release of three more Americans last year as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. The Americans freed were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.Anne Fogel told the BBC at the time of feeling "betrayal" when she learnt that her brother was not included in the prisoner exchange - which Biden had lauded as a "feat of diplomacy".Mr Fogel, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He had previously worked as a diplomat at the US embassy there.While in prison, he reportedly taught English to fellow inmates.It is unclear if the US released someone in return for Mr Fogel.Steve Witkoff's trip to Russia is the first by a senior US official to the country, which is a pariah in much of the West, for a number of years. Most contact was shut off between the nations following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
National Security Adviser Waltz said Mr Fogel's release was a "show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine". He did not provide further details. President Trump announced earlier on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would travel to Ukraine later this week.During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.But in an interview with Fox News on Monday, he said: "They [Ukraine] may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday."Asked by the BBC about the link made by officials between the release and the conflict in Ukraine, Anne Fogel said: "These are the giant machinations of world politics at play. "It's going to be interesting to look back at this and to see how this all fits in and… how history plays out."