After the release of US citizen Marc Fogel from a Russian prison, Kremlin chief of staff Dmitri Peskow announced the imminent return of a Russian citizen held in the US. Peskow revealed that the individual would be repatriated in the coming days, a result of intensified contacts between Moscow and Washington.
“This kind of arrangement is preceded by thorough and careful diplomatic work” Peskow said, adding that such agreements, though not revolutionary, are small steps towards rebuilding trust, which is currently at a low point.
Peskow’s comments followed a statement by US President Donald Trump, in which he suggested that the release of Fogel could be an important element in resolving the Ukraine crisis.
Earlier, on February 11, the US’s Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff, unexpectedly arrived in Moscow and returned to the US with Fogel. The White House stated that Trump had ensured the exchange as part of a “swap.”
Fogel, a teacher at a US school in Moscow, had enjoyed diplomatic immunity as a US Embassy employee until May 2021. In August 2021, he was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after customs officials found marijuana and cannabis oil in his luggage. In June 2022, a Moscow court sentenced him to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling, a crime to which Fogel had pleaded guilty.