You are currently viewing Trump welcomes back schoolteacher released by Russia

Trump welcomes back schoolteacher released by Russia

  • Post category:Top stories
  • Post comments:0 Comments
  • Post last modified:February 12, 2025

Donald Trump has welcomed home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel after he was released from prison in Russia, with the US president saying Vladimir Putin had got “not much” in return. Trump said that another detainee would be freed on Wednesday without giving their name. Mr Fogel, a 63-year-old former diplomat, landed at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington DC late on Tuesday evening, before travelling to the White House. His release was negotiated as part of an exchange with Russia, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said earlier. Russia did not comment on the release immediately.

Trump, standing alongside Mr Fogel in the White House, said: “To me he looks damned good.” He told reporters the release was a “show of good faith” from the Russians and that it “could be a big important part” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. We were treated very nicely by Russia, he said. Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and millions of people can stop being killed. Hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of them soldiers, are believed to have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.

Describing the prisoner deal with Russia as “very fair, very reasonable”, Trump said “somebody else is being released tomorrow”. I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now, said Mr Fogel. I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world.

Mr Fogel’s sister, Anne Fogel, earlier told the BBC that her brother, who was detained in Russia in 2021, was moved last Wednesday from a penal colony in Rybinsk. She said the family had known his release was a possibility but also that the negotiations were “very tenuous”.

After landing on US soil, the White House posted on X: “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” along with a picture of Mr Fogel. In a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, his wife Jane and sons Ethan and Sam said: This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal.

Mr Fogel was arrested at an airport for illegal possession of cannabis in 2021. He was charged with carrying a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the US, and given a 14-year prison sentence. Mr Fogel’s legal team thanked Trump for his role in the negotiation and criticised what they called the “bureaucratic inaction” of the Biden administration.

Source link

Leave a Reply