US schoolteacher launched by Russia

American schoolteacher and former diplomat Marc Fogel has landed within the US after he was launched from jail in Russia.

The 63-year-old landed at Joint Base Andrews simply outdoors Washington DC late on Tuesday night. He’s set to fulfill President Donald Trump on the White Home later.

Mr Fogel’s launch was negotiated as a part of an alternate with Russia, US Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz mentioned earlier on Tuesday with out offering additional particulars.

Russia has not commented on his launch. Mr Fogel’s sister, in the meantime, advised the BBC of her “nice reduction” at his freedom.

“I plan to have a good time via the following 24 hours,” Anne Fogel mentioned. “We’re so joyful.”

She mentioned her brother, who detained in Russia in 2021, was moved final Wednesday from a penal colony in Rybinsk. She mentioned the household knew his launch was a risk, but additionally that “these negotiations are very tenuous”.

After touchdown on US soil, the White Home posted on X: “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” together with an image of Mr Fogel.

In an announcement obtained by CBS Information, the BBC’s US information associate, his spouse Jane and sons Ethan and Sam mentioned: “This has been the darkest and most painful interval of our lives, however as we speak, we start to heal.”

Mr Fogel was arrested at an airport for unlawful possession of hashish in 2021.

He was charged with carrying a small quantity of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed within the US, and given a 14-year jail sentence.

Mr Fogel’s authorized crew thanked Trump for his function within the negotiation and criticised what they known as the “bureaucratic inaction” of the earlier Biden administration.

“President Trump secured Marc’s launch in just some weeks, losing no time in taking decisive motion to convey Marc house,” an announcement from his legal professionals, additionally despatched to CBS, mentioned.

Mr Fogel wasn’t classed by the US authorities as wrongfully detained till December 2024, regardless of starting his sentence in 2022.

His household had tried to push former President Joe Biden to safe his launch, and had been left disenchanted when he was omitted of prisoner exchanges in 2022 and 2024.

US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia on the same cost of hashish possession in 2022, was freed in an alternate for Russian arms seller Viktor Bout 10 months later.

Subsequently, the Biden administration secured the discharge of three extra People final yr as a part of the most important prisoner alternate between Russia and the West because the Chilly Struggle. The People freed had been Wall Road Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.

Anne Fogel advised the BBC on the time of feeling “betrayal” when she learnt that her brother was not included within the prisoner alternate – which Biden had lauded as a “feat of diplomacy”.

Mr Fogel, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a trainer on the Anglo-American College of Moscow. He had beforehand labored as a diplomat on the US embassy there.

Whereas in jail, he reportedly taught English to fellow inmates.

It’s unclear if the US launched somebody in return for Mr Fogel.

Mr Fogel flew again to the US with Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East.

Witkoff’s journey to Russia is the primary by a senior US official to the nation in quite a lot of years. Most contact between the nations was shut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nationwide Safety Adviser Waltz mentioned Mr Fogel’s launch was a “present of fine religion from the Russians and an indication we’re transferring in the suitable course to finish the brutal and horrible warfare in Ukraine”. He didn’t present additional particulars.

President Trump introduced earlier on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would journey to Ukraine later this week.

Throughout his presidential marketing campaign, Trump promised to finish the warfare in Ukraine in 24 hours.

However in an interview with Fox Information on Monday, he mentioned: “They [Ukraine] might make a deal, they could not make a deal. They could be Russian sometime, or they will not be Russian sometime.”

Requested by the BBC in regards to the hyperlink made by officers between the discharge and the battle in Ukraine, Anne Fogel mentioned: “These are the large machinations of world politics at play.

“It is going to be attention-grabbing to look again at this and to see how this all suits in and… how historical past performs out.”