Marc Fogel had traveled readily to and from Russia many times before his fateful last return to the country in August 2021. He had taught history for almost a decade, mostly to the children of diplomats, at the Anglo-American School in Moscow.
But on entering Russia ahead of what he had decided would be his final year teaching at the school, Mr. Fogel was arrested and accused of smuggling drugs — less than an ounce of cannabis that he used to treat chronic back pain. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in a high-security prison; in Russia, lesser sentences have often been given to convicted murderers.
After lobbying by the U.S. government, Mr. Fogel, now 63, was set free on Tuesday after three-and-a-half years in custody.
He and his wife, Jane, had been global adventurers nearing retirement, having lived in Colombia, Malaysia, Oman, Venezuela and Russia. But like other Americans imprisoned in Russia, like the basketball star Brittney Griner and the journalist Evan Gershkovich, he became a pawn in the power struggles between Moscow and Washington surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Until a year before his arrest, Mr. Fogel, like all the teachers at the Anglo-American School, had diplomatic immunity. But as tensions rose with the United States, Russia stripped the teachers of that protection. In 2022, Russia forced the school to close and confiscated its property.
Eric Rubin, a former American diplomat in Moscow who knows Mr. Fogel and worked on getting him released, said his was “essentially a hostage-taking situation.” He said he suspected that the Russian authorities knew Mr. Fogel would be carrying cannabis vape canisters when he landed at Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow with his wife, Jane.
“This was definitely a setup,” Mr. Rubin said, and the sentence was “outrageously inconsistent” with the penalties meted out for similar offenses by Russian citizens, who often get probation rather than prison time.
Mr. Fogel had a doctor’s prescription for medical marijuana and, according to a website maintained by his family, “he planned on declaring his medical marijuana at Russian customs.” The site says, “Marc suffered from physical ailments including severe back and associated knee, hip, and shoulder problems,” and even displays X-rays showing pins and screws in his lower spine.
None of that mattered to the authorities in Russia, where medical use of marijuana is not recognized — although, the family’s website says, “Russia had previously let foreigners bring in marijuana with a physician’s prescription.”
Mr. Fogel was tried by the same court as Ms. Griner, who was convicted of a similar crime and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. She was exchanged in December 2022, after almost 10 months in custody, for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer.
After his conviction, Mr. Fogel was sent to a remote labor camp north of Moscow, a location that made it difficult for diplomats to visit, where his family said he received substandard medical care and his “deterioration has been dramatic.” Last year, they spoke out about his “severe health issues,” their fear that his 95-year-old mother would never see him again, and the urgency to “save him from potentially dying in a Russian prison.”
The family grew angry with the Biden administration for not paying as much attention to the plight of Mr. Fogel as it had to those of Ms. Griner, Mr. Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was released last August in a prisoner swap, or Paul Whelan, an American who was held in Russia from 2018 until he was released with Mr. Gershkovich. In effect, they said, his own government had abandoned him.
On the website that calls for his release, Mr. Fogel’s supporters said that before getting elected, President Trump had promised his mother that he was “committed to bringing” Mr. Fogel home. At the end of December, the State Department said that the American government had declared Mr. Fogel as wrongfully detained — a move his family said was three years overdue.
“Now that we have the full force of the U.S. government behind us, we must do everything in our power to bring Marc home as quickly and safely as possible,” the family said in a statement following the announcement.
Speaking during his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that it would be impossible to improve relations between Washington and Moscow unless Mr. Fogel was released.
“If they are not willing to do this,” Mr. Rubio said, “then I think chances of improvement of Russia-U.S. relations are impossible.”
