{"id":236786,"date":"2025-02-11T22:19:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/russia-releases-american-teacher-marc-fogel-from-prison\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T22:19:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T22:19:50","slug":"russia-releases-american-teacher-marc-fogel-from-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/russia-releases-american-teacher-marc-fogel-from-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia releases American teacher Marc Fogel from prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Russia<\/div>


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An American teacher sentenced to 14 years in a Russian jail has been released and is flying home to be reunited with his family.<\/p>\n

Marc Fogel, 63, was pictured on a flight to the US on Tuesday – more than three years after he was arrested in Moscow for drug smuggling.<\/p>\n

He was detained after travelling with what his family said was medically prescribed cannabis. In December, the US government designated him as wrongfully detained.<\/p>\n

Mr Fogel left Russia<\/a><\/strong> with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in what officials said could help bring about talks to end the Ukraine<\/a><\/strong> war.<\/p>\n

US national security adviser Mike Waltz said: “President Trump<\/a><\/strong>, Steve Witkoff and the president’s advisers negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians”.<\/p>\n

“By tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\n Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff (left) helped secure the release. File pic: Reuters
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Moscow has so far not commented and it is unclear what concessions the US might have made.<\/p>\n

“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,” the family said in a statement.<\/p>\n

They said their time apart had been “the darkest and most painful period of our lives”.<\/p>\n

Mr Waltz said the deal was “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump said last month his administration was involved in “very serious” talks with Russia about the future of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
Trump imposes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports<\/strong><\/a>
Armie Hammer addresses cannibalism and assault allegations<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Fogel’s release comes six months after he was excluded from the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That historic deal won the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, among others.<\/p>\n

Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov was among those released from Western prisons in exchange.<\/p>\n

However, US-Russian national Ksenia Khavana remains locked up after getting a 12-year treason sentence<\/a><\/strong> in August related to a $52 donation to a charity benefiting Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American teacher sentenced to 14 years in a Russian jail has been released and is flying home to be reunited with his family. Marc Fogel, 63, was pictured on a flight to the US on Tuesday – more than three years after he was arrested in Moscow for drug smuggling. He was detained after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/02\/768x432\/skynews-steve-witkoff-witkoff_6826023.jpg?20250211205714","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1147,184695,8101,5918,6037,202,19484],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236788,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236786\/revisions\/236788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}