US President Joe Biden.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Washington: US President Joe Biden said on Friday that US officials still hope to secure the release of Marc Fogel, a US citizen who is serving a 14-year sentence in Russia, after the biggest East-West swap of prisoners since the Cold War.
Fogel, a 63-year-old teacher who had also worked at the US Embassy in Moscow, was sentenced for drug smuggling after he was detained in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana—which he said he uses for medical reasons—in his luggage.
At the time of his arrest, Fogel worked at the now-shuttered Anglo-American School in Moscow.
"We're not giving up on that," Biden told reporters when asked about Fogel's case as he left the White House to spend the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
Pressed for details on when Fogel could be released, Biden shot back: "You want me to tell you ahead of time so he doesn't get out?"
The historic swap of prisoners on Thursday involved 24 prisoners - 16 sent from Russia to the West including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and eight sent back to Russia from the West.
Anne Fogel, the jailed teacher's sister, told PBS 'NewsHour' on Thursday that Fogel's family had spoken with Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan two years ago, but had heard nothing since.
"Marc has never been prioritized. He had — he was convicted under the same code as Brittney Griner, but he was never designated as wrongfully detained. And we don't have the NBA behind us and we don't have The Wall Street Journal behind us, so it's been very difficult for us to get our man out," she said.
US basketball player Griner was released from detention in Russia in a prisoner swap in 2022. She was detained in a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
"This is absolutely unfair that they did not bring him home with the greatest historic prisoner swap since the World War," Fogel said.