AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In August of 2021, Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvania school teacher, boarded a flight to Russia ready for his 10th and final year of teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. But upon landing, authorities found a small amount of marijuana in his luggage and ultimately sentenced him to 14 years hard labor at a Russian prison. His family says the marijuana was for medical use. But now Mr. Fogel, as he was known to his students, is back in the United States after a deal between the White House and the Kremlin. A Russian national charged with operating an illegal cryptocurrency exchange was released by the U.S. And though it was a deal negotiated at the highest levels of government, it's hard to imagine that this moment would've been possible without the sustained efforts of Marc Fogel's family, who advocated for his release for years. His sister, Anne Fogel, joins us now. Welcome, Anne.
ANNE FOGEL: Thanks for having me.
CHANG: I just want to first ask you, how are you feeling in this moment? I can't imagine the relief coursing through you right now.
FOGEL: It is a very different kind of day than the past 3 1/2.
CHANG: Three and a half years?
FOGEL: Yeah. There's just a great deal of relief, and I can feel my body recalibrating.
CHANG: How did you first find out that your brother was coming home?
FOGEL: We kind of had an inclination that something was going on starting February 5. We got kind of a cryptic text from Russia saying that Marc was not in the penal colony.
CHANG: A cryptic text from Russia. From whom, exactly?
FOGEL: This was the daughter of a prisoner.
CHANG: OK.
FOGEL: And they wanted to check on Marc. So he makes friends wherever he goes, I assure you. Actually, many people have been checking on him from Russia, and it's beautiful. But last week, it was very alarming to have people saying, you know, he was taken. They gave him new clothes. They showered him, et cetera, et cetera. But then, you know, communication with him had stopped.
CHANG: Wow.
FOGEL: The last I spoke with him was on February 3. It was our normal conversation, really just checking in and sharing memories. It's been very hard to talk with him when so many people are listening in.
CHANG: Yeah. So when you first heard word that he had been taken from the penal colony, dressed, showered, et cetera, you had no idea if that was good news or bad news?
FOGEL: We didn't. We were hopeful, though. But, like, as the week wore on, and we didn't hear anything, it was alarming. There were many nervous breakdowns in there. And we learned that Steve Witkoff's plane was in Moscow.
CHANG: This is President Trump's envoy to the Middle East.
FOGEL: And then my brother called my sister-in-law, Jane, and my mother and let them know that he was about to get on the plane. So it came to a head very quickly and strangely, somehow. There's no playbook for this. It's kind of a bizarre experience.
CHANG: God, I can't imagine. Well, I know that your family had been working for Marc's release for years, even as other Americans detained by Russia were getting released like Brittney Griner, the basketball star, like the journalist Evan Gershkovich. Those two releases came under President Biden. And I'm curious, during those days, watching those two very prominent releases, what were you told about your brother's potential for release?
FOGEL: Well, they had continually asked for humanitarian release for Marc. It certainly seemed like a long shot then as it does now. He had not been designated as wrongfully detained. That is our government's way of saying that you are a priority. It was a very difficult period of time to see the administration favor other nationalities before Americans. And I'm a very global-positive person, but Marc had one passport, and he needed our government.
CHANG: So it sounds like you didn't feel the U.S. had pushed hard enough, early enough, for Marc's release?
FOGEL: Not initially. Yeah, it's been an eye-opening experience. Government works. It's fascinating, and it's complicated. And it works finally. It's not fast, but it works.
CHANG: Well, to speak of politics a little bit more, I know that your mother had met with now President Trump before the rally, the now famous rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Of course, this is the rally that would make news for the attempt on Trump's life.
FOGEL: Right.
CHANG: What can you tell us about the conversation that your mother had with Donald Trump before that rally?
FOGEL: You know, it was a very short conversation. He is and was a very busy man at that point in time. But she got to him. He said that last night. She's a formidable little lady. She comes with almost 96 years of experience behind her. He heard her.
CHANG: Yeah.
FOGEL: Thank God. And we're grateful. We're incredibly grateful.
CHANG: Well, Anne, I wonder if you've had any time to think about what you have personally learned from this entire ordeal, if you have any lessons to share, any words of wisdom, any reflections on what it's been like.
FOGEL: (Laughter) Well, there's a lot to be said for perseverance. It gets you the majority of the way, I guess. This has been a Sisyphean task.
CHANG: But a task that now has a happy ending.
FOGEL: We just tried to keep the wheels on the track and kept moving forward in spite of defeats. So it's been a journey that I'm happy to have end (laughter).
CHANG: I bet. I bet you are. Well, I wish you and your whole family, and in particular Marc, all the very best. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
FOGEL: Thank you. I appreciate it.
CHANG: Anne Fogel. Her brother Marc is back in the United States after wrongful detention in Russia.
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