American teacher home in U.S. after Russia prisoner exchange

A Russian citizen held in a U.S. prison would soon be repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Russian citizen’s identity will be disclosed once he lands in his homeland later this week. 

The Kremlin this week agreed to return teacher Marc Fogel to the U.S. after negotiations with Steve Witkoff, an American envoy to the Middle East. Fogel landed on U.S. soil Wednesday and met with President Donald Trump at the White House. U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz called the negotiations a show of good faith between Moscow and Washington.

Who is Fogel? The educator taught high school students for 36 years at schools around the world. In 2021 he and his wife began their tenth year teaching at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, according to a website associated with his family. Fogel planned to retire after the school year ended. Russian officials arrested him at the airport in August when he and his wife returned to the country following summer vacation.

Authorities detained him for carrying slightly less than an ounce of medical marijuana. which his family said he used to treat severe back pain.

Officials in June 2022 sentenced him to 14 years in a high-security prison. The Biden administration late last year classified him as being wrongfully detained.

Dig deeper: Listen to Travis Kircher’s report in The World and Everything in It about Ryan Corbett’s release after two and a half years in Taliban captivity.