Russia releases American teacher Marc Fogel from prison

The Trump administration says it negotiated a deal to get American Marc Fogel out of jail in Russia. Fogel was a teacher in Russia and was arrested in August 2021 after customs agents found medical marijuana in his luggage.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement on Tuesday that Fogel, 63, had been released in what he called “an exchange” with Russia and was on his way back to the United States.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Russia to bring Fogel home.

“We are absolutely in celebration, major relief mode,” Fogel’s sister Anne Fogel tells NPR.

Their mother, Malphine Fogel, 95, who lives in Pennsylvania, kept raising the case — including directly with President Trump while he was on the campaign trail.

“My mother spoke to President Trump shortly before he was shot in Butler,” Anne Fogel says, referring to the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. “And he told her then that he would he would get my brother out, and and I give him great credit. He was true to his word.”

Fogel had been passed over during previous prisoner swaps with Russia. It was only last year that the State Department decided that he was being “unjustly detained” — a designation that gave more urgency to his case. There were no immediate details about what the U.S. gave to Russia to secure Fogel’s release.

Waltz called Fogel’s release a sign of good faith from Moscow — and, without explaining it, connected this to diplomacy on Ukraine, calling the deal “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”

The Fogel family released a statement thanking President Trump for securing his release, saying, “We are beyond grateful, relieved and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband and son, Marc Fogel, is finally coming home.”