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Russia releases the school teacher Marc Fogel after a discreet visit from the American envoy Steve Witkoff while Trump seeks to restore relations with Moscow.
Marc Fogel, an American school teacher arrested in Russia since August 2021, gestures on an airplane that turn him back to the United States after the United States special envoy Steve Witkoff assured his release. (Image: Reuters)
Russia launched the American school teacher Marc Fogel on Tuesday after an unnoticed visit to Moscow by the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff, said the White House.
The launch of Fogel, 63, who has been arrested in Russia since August 2021, occurs when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, seeks to improve relations with Moscow as part of an effort to ensure the end of the War in Ukraine.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff and President’s advisors negotiated an exchange that serves as a good faith of the Russians and a sign that we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine” , National Security Advisor of the White House said Mike Waltz.
The White House did not say what the United States could have offered in exchange for the release of Fogel, which Fogel’s Russian lawyer, Dmitry Ovsyannikov, confirmed to the State News Agency RIA without providing details.
Waltz said Witkoff, the main envoy of the Middle East of Trump, left Russian airspace with Fogel, which is from Pennsylvania. A White House official said Fogel can stop at Washington.
“For tonight, Marc Fogel will be on American soil and will meet with his family and his loved ones thanks to President Trump’s leadership,” Waltz said.
Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling after he was arrested at the SHREMETYEVO airport in Moscow in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana, who said he uses for medical reasons, in his luggage.
“We are more than grateful, relieved and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband and son, Marc Fogel, finally return home,” said the Fogel family in a statement.
Fogel was out of a historical exchange of prisoners last August that involved 24 prisoners, 16 sent from Russia to the west, including the Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich Wall reporter, and eight sent to Russia from the west.
“This has been the darkest and painful period of our lives, but today we begin to heal,” said the Fogel family.
Trump has indicated that he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but has been vague in the details that is not saying that he insists on ending the three -year Ukraine War.
“We are making good progress there. I think I really think we are making very good progress, “Trump told journalists about Ukraine on Tuesday.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a FEED -Reuters Union News Agency)
- Location :
Washington DC, United States of America (USA)
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