Malphine Fogel learned of the massive multinational prisoner swap deal involving four Americans on Thursday the same way most of the country did — by watching the news on television.
Although for Ms. Fogel, 95, the news represented a sliver of hope for her son, Marc Fogel, who turned 63 on Sunday in a Russian prison. The Oakmont teacher was arrested in 2021 and charged with drug possession.
As the hours ticked by, that hope turned to disappointment as it became clear her son would not be freed in the deal with Moscow that included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan. The swap set some two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place.
In an interview in her Butler home on Thursday, Ms. Fogel told the Post-Gazette the news that her son would not be returning home has been heartbreaking.
“I’m 95 years old and I don’t know how much time I have left,” she said. “I want to see him.”
Mr. Fogel was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport outside of Moscow in August 2021 as he returned to the country for his 10th and final year as a history teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He was charged with possession of marijuana and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor.
Coping with his absence has not gotten any easier in the past three years, Ms. Fogel said.
“I pray a lot, but there isn’t much we can do,” she said. “When he calls, I try not to sound upset. I don’t want him to worry about us, but I’m sure he worries about me. … It’s disheartening to see them making progress with other cases and it seems like Marc’s in limbo.”
Ms. Fogel said the last time she spoke to her son was about a week ago, but said he called his sister Thursday morning.
“I think he knew what was going on and wanted to warn her,” Ms. Fogel said.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday said President Joe Biden’s administration is “actively” working to get Mr. Fogel returned home as well.
When the administration first sought the release of Mr. Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner in 2022, "we also sought to release Marc Fogel. ... We are actively continuing to do so and are engaged in active discussion on how we can get to that, how we can get to a path to get him home," Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, said.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said while he was glad to hear about the release of other prisoners, he doesn’t want Mr. Fogel to be forgotten.
“For years, I have been working alongside Marc’s family to push the administration to bring Marc home,” he said. “While Marc’s name may not be in the news every day, he is no less deserving of a reunion with his family. This is a difficult day for Marc and his family.”
Mr. Fogel’s sentence in a harsh prison is likely aggravating his health issues, said U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, and gives urgency to the effort to bring him home.
“The sad reality that Marc Fogel is not headed back to Western Pennsylvania makes this a crushing day for his family, our community, and all who have been in the fight to try and bring him home,” he said.
Ms. Fogel wrote in a lawsuit against the federal government in June that she has been given no explanation as to why her son has not been declared “wrongfully detained” when his case parallels so many other Americans who have been declared as such.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs later alleged on its website that Mr. Fogel used his diplomatic status through the school to import and distribute drugs to Russian children, claims the lawsuit said were “so outrageous and blatantly false that even the Russian prosecutors did not repeat them at trial.”
His arrest and conviction, according to the lawsuit, were part of Russia’s larger plan to detain Americans to create leverage in negotiations with the U.S. involving Russian detainees.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, said the campaign to free Mr. Fogel has been “an ongoing effort for us for almost three years now.”
“There’s no reason for Marc Fogel to be detained,” he said. “There’s also no reason for the State Department to not be able to come clean with us on what their plans are when it comes to getting Marc Fogel released.”
He added that many meetings with State Department officials have been with political appointees, saying, “I’d rather talk to lifetime members of the State Department to see exactly where we are.”
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said the news of Mr. Fogel’s continued detainment is disappointing.
“It's time to bring Marc home. His family and our community need him back,” she said.
The sprawling deal is the latest in a series of prisoner swaps negotiated between Russia and the U.S. in the past two years but the first to require significant concessions from other countries.
But the release of Americans has come at a price: Russia has secured the freedom of its own nationals convicted of serious crimes in the West by trading them for journalists, dissidents and other Westerners convicted and sentenced in a highly politicized legal system on charges the U.S. considers bogus.
The deal would be the latest exchange in the last two years between Washington and Moscow, including a December 2022 trade that brought Ms. Griner back to the U.S. in exchange for notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout and a swap earlier that year of Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Ms. Fogel said while she wants to see her son released, she was happy to learn others were freed.
“I’m glad [Mr. Gershkovich] is out,” she said. “I’m glad Whelan finally got out, but I just wish they would pay a little more attention to Marc’s case.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
First Published: August 1, 2024, 4:43 p.m.
Updated: August 2, 2024, 7:44 p.m.
