American Teacher Marc Fogel Freed by Russia After More Than Three Years in Detention
Marc Fogel, an American teacher held in Russia for more than three years, was released and returned to the United States on February 11, 2025. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz said in a statement that day that Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's special envoy, was leaving Russian airspace with Fogel, and that Trump, Witkoff, and the president's advisers had negotiated an exchange. The statement called the exchange a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign of moving in the right direction to end the war in Ukraine, and said Fogel would be on American soil that night, reunited with his family and loved ones.
Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, had taught at the Anglo-American School in Moscow. In August 2021, returning to Russia, he was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after customs officers found about 17 grams of marijuana in his luggage. Fogel and his family said it was medical marijuana prescribed by a U.S. doctor for chronic pain following spinal surgery. In June 2022, a Russian court convicted him of large-scale drug smuggling and sentenced him to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony.
In December 2024, the U.S. State Department formally designated Fogel as wrongfully detained, a designation that moved his case into the U.S. government's dedicated channel for Americans held abroad. His family had campaigned for years for his return.
On the evening of February 11, after landing in the United States, Fogel was brought to the White House in Washington, D.C., where Trump greeted him, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson among those present. With a U.S. flag draped over his shoulders, Fogel spoke to reporters alongside Trump in the Diplomatic Reception Room. He said he felt like "the luckiest man on Earth right now" and thanked Trump and Witkoff.
Trump called the terms of the exchange "very fair, very reasonable," but did not say what the United States had given in return, and did not answer whether he had spoken directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin about it. Trump also said another person would be released on February 12, without naming that person.
Fogel's family said in a statement that day that after more than three years of detention Marc Fogel was finally coming home, that they were "beyond grateful, relieved, and overwhelmed," and that after the darkest and most painful period of their lives, they would begin to heal.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2025年2月11日晚，特朗普在位于华盛顿特区的白宫迎接获释的美国教师 Marc Fogel，两人握手，Fogel 肩披美国国旗。（白宫官方照片，Daniel Torok 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: President Donald Trump greets freed American teacher Marc Fogel at the White House in Washington, D.C., on the evening of February 11, 2025, a U.S. flag draped over Fogel's shoulders. (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
