The American professor Marc Fogel, arrested in Russia since 2021, was received by President Donald Trump upon his return home.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, received the American professor Marc Fogel at the White House on Tuesday night, after Fogel was released from Russia, where he had been arrested since August 2021.
“I feel like the most fortunate man on Earth at this time,” Fogel said while standing with Trump.
Fogel praised the president, American diplomats and legislators for working to ensure his release.
“I'm amazed by what everyone did,” said Fogel.
Trump said he appreciated what Russia did by letting Fogel return home, but did not specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond qualifying it as “very fair” and “very reasonable.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that the United States was releasing a Russian citizen from an American prison as part of the agreement and that his identity would become public once he returned to Russia.
Trump also said that another hostage release would be announced on Wednesday.
Mike Waltz, Trump National Security Advisor, said on Tuesday that the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel, but did not give details about what the American part of the treatment implied. In agreements of this type in recent years, the United States has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in return.
On the other hand, Waltz presented the agreement for the liberation of Fogel in broader geopolitical terms, saying that it was “a good faith of the Russians and a sign that we are moving forward in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war In Ukraine ”, an invasion that Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands of dead or injured on both sides.
Trump has promised to negotiate the end of the War of Russia against Ukraine within the first 100 days of its new administration, at the end of April.
“Since President Trump assumed the position, he has successfully achieved the release of Americans detained worldwide, and President Trump will continue until all the Americans detained return to the United States,” said Waltz. The recent release of six Americans detained in Venezuela and Fogel's release are the only publicly known cases.
Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain to Russia, where he was arrested for carrying the substance. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14 -year sentence in June 2022, and the outgoing administration of former president Joe Biden at the end of last year classified him as unfairly detained.