Donald Trump's administration secured the release of an American teacher imprisoned in Russia on drug charges.
Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy to the Middle East, a New York real estate executive and a personal friend of Trump, negotiated a deal with the Kremlin to release Marc Fogel, who was arrested in August 2021 and accused of bringing medical marijuana into Russia, and Trump urged his longtime friend to bring the teacher home on his plane as part of the agreement, reported the New York Times.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and the president’s advisers 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,” said national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Fogel began serving a 14-year sentence in June 2022, but he was only classified late last year as wrongfully detained by president Joe Biden's administration, and it's not clear whether the U.S. or an ally had released any other individuals to secure the American's release.
Witkoff had been secretly negotiating the deal, although online flight trackers noticed that he had flown to Moscow on his private jet, making him the first senior U.S. official since then-CIA director William Burns in November 2021 to attempt to prevent an invasion of Ukraine.
“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,” Fogel's wife and two sons said in a statement.