A Russian national imprisoned in a US jail on money laundering charges will be freed in exchange for the release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel from prison in Russia, authorities have confirmed.
Mr Fogel, a 63-year-old former diplomat, landed at Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington, DC late on Tuesday evening, before he was welcomed home by President Donald Trump at the White House.
Trump, standing alongside Mr Fogel in the White House, said: “To me he looks damned good.”
The president said that another detainee would be freed on Wednesday without giving their name.
Mr Fogel, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had been working as a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He had previously worked as a diplomat at the US embassy there.
While in prison, he reportedly taught English to fellow inmates.
Mr Fogel flew back to the US with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.
After landing on US soil, the White House posted on X: “PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT!” along with a picture of Mr Fogel.
President Trump told reporters the release was a “show of good faith” from the Russians and that it “could be a big important part” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia,” he said. “Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war and millions of people can stop being killed.”
Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told US network NewsNation that while the deal to get Mr Fogel released was a “good sign”, he cautioned against “linking” it to the war in Ukraine.
Hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of them soldiers, are believed to have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that while such agreements build trust between countries, they were unlikely to be a “turning point” in a relationship.
Peskov said he would not name the Russian who was being released as part of the exchange until they had returned home.
But US officials have identified the man as Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in 2017 and extradited to the US.
Vinnik, who operated cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2024.
Trump said earlier that the prisoner deal with Russia was “very fair, very reasonable”, and that “somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of”.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who flew back from Russia with Mr Fogel, disclosed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was “instrumental” in the release and a “cheerleader” for the deal.
“Behind the scenes, he was encouraging, pushing and looking for the right result,” he said. “He was helpful, he really was.”
Speaking to Reuters news agency, sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed that Salman was involved, along with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” said Mr Fogel. “I’m a middle-class school teacher who’s now in a dream world.”
Mr Fogel’s sister, Anne Fogel, told the BBC that her brother, who was detained in Russia in 2021, was moved last Wednesday from a penal colony in Rybinsk. She said the family had known his release was a possibility but also that the negotiations were “very tenuous”.
In a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, his wife Jane and sons Ethan and Sam said: “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 illegal possession of cannabis in 2021.
He was charged with carrying a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the US, and given a 14-year prison sentence.
Mr Fogel’s legal team thanked Trump for his role in the negotiation and criticised what they called 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 statement from his lawyers, also sent to CBS, said.
Mr Fogel was not classed by the US government as wrongfully detained until December 2024, despite beginning his sentence in 2022.
His family had tried to push former President Joe Biden to secure his release, and were left disappointed when he was left out of prisoner exchanges in 2022 and 2024.
US basketball star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia on a similar charge of cannabis possession in 2022, was freed in an exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout 10 months later.
Subsequently, the Biden administration secured the release of three more Americans last year as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. The Americans freed were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Anne Fogel told the BBC at the time of feeling “betrayal” when she learnt that her brother was not included in the prisoner exchange – which Biden had lauded as a “feat of diplomacy”.
At least 10 Americans remain in prison in Russia. They include Gordon Black – a US army staff sergeant who flew to Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was then accused of stealing from her – and Robert Woodland, who was adopted from Russia as a child and was working as an English teacher when he was convicted of drugs offences.
Witkoff’s trip to Russia is the first by a senior US official to the country in a number of years. Most contact between the nations was shut off following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
