American schoolteacher Marc Fogel has returned home after being released from a Russian prison. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed him and stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin received nothing in return for this release. Trump also mentioned that another detainee would be released on Wednesday, though he did not disclose the name. The British news outlet BBC reported this news.
The 63-year-old Marc Fogel is also a former diplomat. On Tuesday evening, he landed at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., and then proceeded to the White House. U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz stated that Fogel’s release was negotiated as part of a prisoner exchange agreement with Russia. However, Russia has not made any immediate comments regarding the release.
Standing next to Fogel at the White House, Trump said, “He looks pretty good to me.” Trump told reporters that this release was a gesture of goodwill from Russia and could be a significant step toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. He further added, “Russia has treated us very well. In fact, I hope this is the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and save millions of lives.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, millions of people have been killed, most of them soldiers. Trump described this prisoner deal with Russia as “very fair and reasonable” and stated that another person would be released the next day.
Fogel said, “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now. I’m just a middle-class schoolteacher.” His sister, Anne Fogel, told the BBC that her brother was transferred from a prison in Rybinsk last Wednesday after being detained in Russia in 2021. She mentioned that the family was aware of the possibility of his release, but the negotiations were very delicate.
After Fogel landed on U.S. soil, the White House posted a picture on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “Promise made, promise kept!” His wife, Jane, and their two sons, Ethan and Sam, told CBS News, BBC’s U.S. partner, that “this has been the darkest and most painful time of our lives, but today we are beginning to heal.”
In 2021, Fogel was arrested at an airport for carrying medical marijuana and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. His legal team thanked Trump for his role in the negotiations and criticized the Biden administration’s inaction. In a statement, his lawyers said, “President Trump secured Marc’s release in just a few weeks, taking swift and decisive action to bring him home.”
Although Fogel began serving his sentence in 2022, the U.S. government did not classify him as “wrongfully detained” until December 2024. His family had urged former President Joe Biden to secure his release, but they were disappointed when he was excluded from the 2022 and 2024 prisoner exchanges.
In 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia on marijuana charges, was released after 10 months in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Last year, the Biden administration secured the release of three more Americans in one of the largest prisoner exchanges between Russia and the West since the Cold War. The freed individuals were Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
It remains unclear whether the U.S. released anyone in exchange for Fogel. He returned to the U.S. alongside Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. Witkoff’s visit to Russia was one of the first high-level U.S. official visits in years. Most communication between the two nations had been cut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.