About 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2025, the private jet carrying Marc Fogel landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. It was his first time on American soil since his arrest in Moscow on Aug. 14, 2021. (Courtesy of White House)
Story by PAULA REED WARD
TribLive
On Aug. 13, 2021, Marc and Jane Fogel pulled away from their white colonial-style home in Oakmont to drive to New York City.
There, they boarded a plane to Moscow to begin their final year teaching at the Anglo-American School, an elite institution built for the children of western diplomats.
But when the couple landed, Russian authorities arrested Marc Fogel, seizing from him less than an ounce of marijuana he had been prescribed in Pittsburgh to alleviate severe back pain. A judge convicted Fogel of drug smuggling and sentenced him to prison.
So began an excruciating ordeal that kept Fogel in Russian custody for 1,277 days.
On Feb. 11, President Donald Trump’s administration secured Fogel’s release and brought him home.
This is Marc Fogel’s story.
Marc Fogel: Raised in Butler Township, Butler County, Marc Fogel went to college to be a teacher. He began his career in Prince George’s County, Md., before taking a number of international teaching posts, including in Moscow, Russia, in 2012. On Aug. 14, 2021, as Fogel returned to Moscow to begin his 10th and final year teaching, he was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport for having medical marijuana in his luggage. He was held in Russian custody until Feb. 11, 2025, when he returned to the United States.
Jane Fogel: Jane Fogel was raised in Butler County and after college worked in advertising sales. In 1995, she moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and began teaching with Marc Fogel. The two married in 1996, had two sons and then spent the next 23 years teaching internationally.
Irina Pigman: Raised in Moscow, Pigman married an American who ran the transportation company that served the Anglo-American School where the Fogels worked. Pigman, who speaks four languages, became friends with the Fogels through her husband and served as a court translator for Marc during his court hearings. She also visited him frequently during his detention in Moscow and later when he served his sentence at the penal colony in Rybinsk.
Sasha Phillips: Phillips is an attorney practicing in Pittsburgh, though she came to the United States from Russia for undergraduate studies in West Virginia. Phillips worked with the Fogel family during Marc’s captivity, including helping to lobby government leaders and politicians. An artist, Phillips also helped bring attention to Marc’s plight through exhibits and projects.
Steve Witkoff: President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Witkoff is a native of the Bronx, N.Y., and a billionaire businessman. Trump tasked him with traveling to Russia in February 2025 to secure Marc Fogel’s release. Witkoff spent three hours meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the deal being finalized. He then flew Fogel back to the United States aboard his private jet.
Donald Trump: Moments before an assassination attempt at the Butler Farm Show grounds, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump met with Malphine Fogel, Marc’s mother. The 95-year-old urged Trump to secure her son’s release, which he promised to do if he won the presidency. Trump prevailed in the General Election and, just three weeks after taking office, upheld his promise.
Over eight months, TribLive reporter Paula Reed Ward met with Marc Fogel a dozen times to talk about his experiences being held in the Russian prison system, his dramatic rescue and his ongoing adjustment to freedom.
Ward spent more than 20 hours in conversation with Fogel and interviewed his loved ones, attorneys, government officials and friends. She also reviewed Russian court documents and U.S. State Department filings.
This five-day exclusive series, which includes visuals from TribLive photographer Kristina Serafini, is the culmination of that reporting.
Paula Reed Ward joined TribLive in August 2020 as a courts reporter following a 17-year career at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill.
Raised in Pleasant Hills, Paula attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania and majored in journalism. Her first job was at the Pottsville Republican & Evening Herald. She then spent five years as a police and courts reporter at the Savannah Morning News, in Savannah, Ga. It was there that she also earned a master’s degree in criminal justice.
Paula is an adjunct professor at Duquesne University and is also the author of the book “Death by Cyanide: The Murder of Dr. Autumn Klein.”
You can contact Paula at pward@triblive.com.
