Donald Trump has welcomed residence American schoolteacher Marc Fogel after he was launched from jail in Russia, with the US president saying Vladimir Putin had received “not much” in return.
Trump stated that one other detainee could be freed on Wednesday with out giving their identify.
Mr Fogel, a 63-year-old former diplomat, landed at Joint Base Andrews simply outdoors Washington DC late on Tuesday night, earlier than travelling to the White House.
His launch was negotiated as a part of an alternate with Russia, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz stated earlier. Russia didn’t touch upon the discharge instantly.
Trump, standing alongside Mr Fogel within the White House, stated: “To me he looks damned good.”
He instructed reporters the discharge was a “show of good faith” from the Russians and that it “could be a big important part” of ending Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” he stated. “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 1000’s of individuals, nearly all of them troopers, are believed to have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine almost three years in the past.
Describing the prisoner take care of Russia as “very fair, very reasonable”, Trump stated “somebody else is being released tomorrow”.
“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” stated Mr Fogel. “I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world.”
Mr Fogel’s sister, Anne Fogel, earlier instructed the BBC that her brother, who was detained in Russia in 2021, was moved final Wednesday from a penal colony in Rybinsk. She stated the household had recognized his launch was a chance but in addition that the negotiations have been “very tenuous”.
After touchdown on US soil, the White House posted on X: “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” together with an image of Mr Fogel.
In a press release obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US information accomplice, his spouse Jane and sons Ethan and Sam stated: “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 unlawful possession of hashish in 2021.
He was charged with carrying a small quantity of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed within the US, and given a 14-year jail sentence.
Mr Fogel’s authorized group thanked Trump for his function within the negotiation and criticised what they referred to as the “bureaucratic inaction” of the Biden administration.
“President Trump secured Marc’s release in just a few weeks, wasting no time in taking decisive action to bring Marc home,” a press release from his legal professionals, additionally despatched to CBS, stated.
Mr Fogel was not classed by the US authorities as wrongfully detained till December 2024, regardless of starting his sentence in 2022.
His household had tried to push former President Joe Biden to safe his launch, and have been left disenchanted when he was omitted of prisoner exchanges in 2022 and 2024.
US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia on an identical cost of hashish possession in 2022, was freed in an exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout 10 months later.
Subsequently, the Biden administration secured the discharge of three extra Americans final yr as a part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. The Americans freed have been Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Anne Fogel told the BBC on the time of feeling “betrayal” when she learnt that her brother was not included within the prisoner alternate – which Biden had lauded as a “feat of diplomacy”.
Mr Fogel, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a instructor on the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He had beforehand labored as a diplomat on the US embassy there.
While in jail, he reportedly taught English to fellow inmates.
It is unclear if the US launched somebody in return for Mr Fogel.
Mr Fogel flew again to the US with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s particular envoy to the Middle East.
Witkoff’s journey to Russia is the primary by a senior US official to the nation in plenty of years. Most contact between the nations was shut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Waltz stated Mr Fogel’s launch was a “sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”. He didn’t present additional particulars.
Trump introduced earlier on Tuesday that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would journey to Ukraine later this week.
During his presidential marketing campaign, Trump promised to finish the struggle in Ukraine in 24 hours.
But in an interview with Fox News on Monday, he stated: “They [Ukraine] may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian some day or they may not be Russian some day.”
Asked by the BBC concerning the hyperlink made by officers between the discharge and the battle in Ukraine, Anne Fogel stated: “These are the giant machinations of world politics at play. It’s going to be interesting to look back at this and to see how this all fits in and… how history plays out.” – BBC
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