American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who has been in prison in Russia since being arrested on drug charges in 2021, has arrived back on U.S. soil.
Fogel was welcomed back to America by President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday night and said he was “the luckiest man alive.”
Draped in the American flag and punching the air, Fogel looked jubilant as he disembarked from a plane on Tuesday night.
Speaking beside Trump at a press conference, an emotional Fogel said he would “forever be indebted” to the president for securing his release.
“I’m a middle-class school teacher who's now in a dream world,” he said.
Fogel also revealed that he was hospitalized “for more than 100 days” while in Russian captivity and during that ordeal was given “more than 400 injections.”
“Knowing I had the support of my fellow Pennsylvanians, my family, my friends, it was so overwhelming that it brought me to my knees, and it brought me to tears, but it was it was my energy, it was my being that kept me going that whole time,” Fogel said. “And I will forever be indebted to President Trump.”
Trump said that he “appreciated” what President Vladimir Putin did in the deal to bring Fogel home, but didn’t share details of the agreement. “He was able to pull it off for you, right?” Trump said to Fogel.
The president also confirmed that another detained American would be released on Wednesday.
“Somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of,” Trump told reporters, but did not go into further details.
Earlier in the day, a statement released by White House national security adviser Mike Waltz confirmed Fogel’s release and that he would be reunited with his family following “an exchange” with Russia.
The statement also highlighted the successful release of American citizens “detained around the world” by the Trump administration.
"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," the statement read.
"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."
Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio and Adam Boehler, Trump’s special envoy for hostage affairs, earlier hinted about the other detained American due to be released on Wednesday, but also would not give further details.
“That’s going to be a surprise for tomorrow,” Boehler told CNN’s The Source anchor Kaitlan Collins.
Speaking to Fox News following the announcement, Fogel’s 95-year-old mother Malphine Fogel, said her son would be “sore from hugs” after returning home and thanked the president specifically.
“Trump promised and I can’t thank him enough, and Secretary Rubio, also, and anyone else who had a hand in this,” she said. “I’m sure there were a few who got the ball rolling but I particularly want to thank President Trump.”
Asked about Waltz’s remarks about the end of the conflict in Ukraine, she added: “Nobody wants to see the war go on, I just hope there’s enough expertise and enough feeling in the political arena that they can get something done I think it’s first and foremost what we should be thinking about.”
Fogel was a teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, where many diplomats from the U.S. Embassy send their children.
He was arrested in August 2021, after he was caught traveling with 11 grams of medically prescribed marijuana, according to his family and friends. Eight grams of hash oil was reportedly also found in his luggage.
According to FreeMarcFogel.net, the U.S. State Department told his family at the time “to remain silent.”
“They did. Days became weeks, weeks became months. The Fogels continued to take their lead from the U.S. State Department who said they were doing everything they could to get Marc home,” the website states.
Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Russia in June 2022.
It was not until October 2024 that Fogel was determined to be "wrongfully detained" by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Since his detention, Fogel’s family has been outspoken in its criticism of the Biden administration and accused the former president of “picking winners and losers” and offering “special treatment” to the likes of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner.
Griner, 34, was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport in February 2022 for carrying vape cartridges containing marijuana concentrate hashish oil in her luggage and later received a nine-year prison sentence.
Fogel’s family said they had been “overshadowed” in the media and with their appeals to the government, by Griner.
