Marc Fogel in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Feb. 11. Photo: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A Russian man imprisoned in the U.S. will be released as a part of the prisoner swap that saw American teacher Marc Fogel freed, the Kremlin said Wednesday.
Why it matters: President Trump has hailed the exchange as a “fair deal” after panning past prisoner exchanges with Russia as imbalanced or otherwise poorly negotiated.
Driving the news: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to identify the Russian prisoner by name at a press briefing Wednesday, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
- In exchange for Fogel, the Russian citizen imprisoned in the U.S. will be repatriated to Russia “in the coming days,” Peskov said.
- His name will be made public once he has returned to Russia, he added.
- The swap’s order of events varies from typical prisoner exchanges, in which prisoners are released simultaneously, with their identities revealed at the same time, AP reported.
State of play: Fogel, 63, hailed from the Pittsburgh area and was a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow.
- He was arrested in 2021 while he tried to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana in his luggage. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
- Fogel arrived back in the U.S. Tuesday night.
Zoom out: Trump has been critical of prisoner exchanges in the past.
- “Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs? Just curious because we never make good deals,” Trump wrote, adding that offering other countries something in exchange set a “bad precedent.”
- He was also sharply critical of the Biden administration’s prisoner swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner, which saws Russia receive a notorious arms dealer in exchange.
Flashback: While Trump did manage to secure the release of some American detainees without an exchange during his first term, he also presided over at least four prisoner swaps, CNN reported.
Go deeper: American teacher back in U.S. after Russia releases him from detention
