Russia frees US history teacher Marc Fogel, White House says

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has secured the release of an American detained in Russia during a trip to the country, the White House said on Tuesday. 

History teacher Marc Fogel, from Pennsylvania, was detained in August 2021 at a Russian airport, for possession of what he and his family said was medically prescribed marijuana.

"President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the president's advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign that we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine," White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said. 

Witkoff and Fogel had left Russian airspace together on Tuesday, following an unannounced visit by the envoy, and he was expected to be reunited with his family later in the day, Waltz said.

Family 'beyond grateful' after 'most painful period of our lives'

Soon after the announcement, Fogel's relatives said they were "beyond grateful, relieved and overwhelmed" that he was coming home.

"This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal," they said. "For the first time in years, our family can look forward to the future with hope."

 

No word on terms of exchange yet

Waltz did not describe what the exchange entailed. Previous exchanges have often involved the reciprocal release of Russian detainees imprisoned by the US or its allies.

The most notable recent deal of this kind took place in August 2024, when three prominent Russian dissidents and US reporter Evan Gershkovic were released in exchange for eight Russian citizens including an intelligence agent who had been jailed for a 2019 murder in a Berlin park.

When and why was Fogel imprisoned and convicted? 

Fogel was detained in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana — which he said he uses for medical reasons — in his luggage.

Fogel's was sentenced in June 2022, following the sharp downturn in US-Russian relations amid Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to 14 years in prison on drug smuggling charges. 

A few months later he had been transferred from a Moscow jail to a penal colony where he was set to serve the remainder of his sentence.

In December 2024, following protests by family and supporters, the outgoing Biden administration declared him to be "wrongfully detained." 

The 63-year-old history teacher born in Butler, Pennsylvania, worked in international schools in several countries around the world during his career. He had been teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow since 2012. 

Edited by: Wesley Rahn