Posted on 02/11/25
| News Source: CNN
Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained for more than three years in Russia, landed in the US on Tuesday night after the Trump administration secured his release in an “exchange.”
The deal to release Fogel, who was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, was negotiated by President Donald Trump, Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, “and the President’s advisers,” according to a statement from national security adviser Mike Waltz.
The statement did not provide any details about the “exchange,” other than to say it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”
“We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually,” Trump said in the Oval Office later Tuesday. “I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and millions of people can stop being killed.”
The White House posted a photo late Tuesday of Fogel stepping off a plane at Joint Base Andrews with an American flag draped across his shoulders. He was expected to travel to the White House, where the president is set to welcome him.
Trump’s pick to serve as special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Fogel’s release would not play out as a direct one-for-one exchange with a Russian held in the US, at least on the tarmac Tuesday.
“You won’t see an exchange go on right now. I think you will see the president give consideration if there are some nonviolent people where maybe there’s no issues one way or the other, but you will not see a one-for-one thing happening at the same time,” Boehler said on “The Source” from Joint Base Andrews ahead of Fogel’s arrival.