Marc Fogel was arrested back in 2021 in Moscow. Fogel and his wife were returning to Russia to teach for the 10th time in the year. While at an airport in Moscow, Fogel was detained by officers as he was “accused of trying to smuggle marijuana into the country” (CBS).

Fogel was convicted on drug smuggling and possession charges and would be sentenced to 14 years in a maximum-security prison. Fogel, “was caught with 17 grams of medical marijuana for a spine condition” (CBS).

Fogel’s family has been fighting for his release. Two years ago, Sarah Jane Grubbs and Ellen Keelan, the nieces of Fogel made statements about their uncle’s imprisonment stating, “They don’t think he will be able to survive because of his age and health….He is 61, he already has these health issues, and we’re talking about a maximum-security prison in Russia. We’re distraught, we’re beside ourselves. We did not see this coming. The only explanation is that this is political” (CBS).

There was talk of Russian Prisoners being used as a part of the war with Ukraine, which led many to believe that Fogel along with other prisoners would be a part of something bigger than just regular charges.

Conversations would begin between Russia and Former President Biden’s Administration about the possibility of prisoner swaps. In August of 2024, “The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free” (AP NEWS).

Though the prisoner swaps were happening, Fogel’s name wasn’t called for prisoners who were to be swapped, which made his family push a lot harder for their family members to be released and also deemed wrongfully detained.

This led the State Department to consider several options as to whether the state should, “designate an American jailed in a foreign country as wrongfully detained, including if there’s credible information that the person is innocent. The factors also include if they are being held for the primary purpose of influencing U.S. policy or securing concessions from the U.S. government”(AP NEWS).

Fogel would later be announced as wrongfully detained in December and returned to US soil this past Tuesday night. Fogel was welcomed by President Donald Trump and stated that “he felt like the luckiest man on Earth” (AP NEWS).

The US swapped Alexander Vinnik for Fogel; Vinnik, “was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges. He was later brought to the U.S. and pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering” (AP NEWS). At the time he was held in Alameda County Jail in California.

The swap is said to be a step in the right direction to ending the war in Ukraine, with President Trump stating, “he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a long phone call and agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine” (AP NEWS).