An American teacher who was detained by Russia is heading back to American soil, the Trump administration announced Tuesday.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are able to announce that Mr. Witkoff is leaving Russian airspace with Marc Fogel, an American who was detained by Russia,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement.
“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 we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” Waltz added.
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, was serving a 14-year prison sentence after his arrest in August 2021 at a Russian airport for being in possession of drugs, which his family and supporters said were medically prescribed marijuana.
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Marc Fogel, right, with his family. (Photos courtesy Ellen Keelan and Lisa Hyland)
Fogel, 63, was designated as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government. In the nine years leading up to his arrest, he was teaching at the Anglo-American School in Moscow.
Fogel’s relatives told the Associated Press 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.”
Waltz also said in his statement that “Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States.
“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” Waltz added.
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Former CIA station chief and Fox News contributor Dan Hoffman called the release Tuesday a “major foreign policy success.
“Any time we are able to extract one of our citizens from behind enemy lines in Russia, good on the administration for doing this. Steven Witkoff has got a lot on his plate right now dealing with the Middle East and it’s incredibly impressive to me that on top of that, he was able to secure the release of Marc Fogel,” Hoffman told Fox News’ “America Reports.”
Fogel had been left out of a massive prisoner swap in August 2024 that freed multiple Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security executive Paul Whelan.
Fogel was a 1984 graduate of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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“After graduating from IUP, Marc devoted his life – 36 years – to education,” the school’s president, Michael Driscoll, wrote last year. “He taught history courses at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, and Malaysia.”
Fox News’ Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
