U.S. Senate calls on Russia to release Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel

The U.S. Senate is officially calling for the release of Marc Fogel, an Oakmont teacher arrested nearly three years ago by Russian authorities for possessing medical marijuana.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling for Fogel’s release and declaring that the Russian government gave him a disproportionate criminal sentence.

Fogel, 63, was arrested in August 2021 in Moscow for carrying around a half-ounce of marijuana. He was sentenced the following June to 14 years in prison.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, introduced the resolution in July along with several colleagues, including his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Braddock.

“Marc Fogel has devoted his life to educating students around the world, from Pittsburgh to Oman to Venezuela to Moscow,” Casey said Wednesday in a prepared statement. “After nearly three years of captivity, Marc’s health is rapidly declining and his life is in danger. I urge President Biden and his administration to do everything possible to bring Marc home.”

Fogel recently spoke publicly for the first time in a TribLive exclusive, detailing his deteriorating health and pleading for U.S. officials to secure his release.

The Senate resolution criticizes the Russian government for convicting Fogel of “large-scale drugs smuggling” in “a politicized show trial” and sentencing him to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

It urges Russia to “desist from issuing outlandishly disproportionate criminal sentences” to nonviolent Americans. It condemns Russia, claiming the country continues to use detentions of Americans for political purposes.

The U.S. House has a concurrent resolution to the Senate’s, but progress has stalled.

The Senate resolution passed as the urgency to bring Fogel home has increased among his allies and family.

Fogel suffers from knee and back pain and used medical marijuana to treat his ailments. He has surgical pins and screws in his spine.

In a phone call last month with TribLive at his mother’s home in Butler County, Fogel didn’t criticize the conditions at his Russian prison, but said he is still in pain.

“Spinal injuries are profound injuries. There’s nerve damage and numbness, and my balance is not as good as it should be,” Fogel said.

The Fogel family’s attorney, Sasha Phillips, said his health is deteriorating.

Phillips wants the Biden administration to put more effort into Fogel’s cause, as it did for WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was detained for nearly 10 months in Russia also on crimes related to possessing medical marijuana.

Russian authorities said she had vape canisters with cannabis oil. Griner was freed in December 2022 in a trade for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Fetterman invoked Griner’s name in a statement Wednesday about the Senate’s action.

“The passage of this resolution sends a very clear message: It’s time to bring Marc Fogel home,” Fetterman said. “We’ve seen the incredible work of the Biden Administration in bringing Brittney Griner and Trevor Reed home. Now let’s bring Marc home.”

Reed, a Marine veteran jailed in Russia for almost three years, was released in April 2022 in exchange for a convicted Russian drug trafficker.

Lobbying effort

Other Americans detained in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, have been determined “wrongfully detained” by the U.S. State Department.

Fogel has not been given that designation.

“Marc is slowly dying while the U.S. government offers excuses for not providing him the same protection extended to others, such as Brittney Griner, who was convicted of a similar crime,” Phillips said. “Marc’s family is left in anguish, watching helplessly as his condition worsens day by day.”

Phillips said State Department officials conducted a highly classified briefing regarding Fogel with Pennsylvania lawmakers on May 7.

Several factors made the meeting unusual, she said: It included aides with top-secret clearance; several Congress members were present; and it had a singular focus on Fogel, while previous briefings usually included information on other U.S. detainees in Russia.

Phillips said it is unclear what the meeting indicates about Fogel’s case — whether it indicated things are moving in the right direction or if it indicated more roadblocks to his freedom.

The lack of clarity is leading to growing frustration among his allies.

During a May 24 appearance in Pittsburgh, Casey told TribLive that he has been lobbying high-ranking State Department officials to push harder for Fogel’s release and to set up meetings between them and Fogel’s family.

Casey said he has personally informed President Joe Biden of Fogel’s plight.

Fogel’s detainment has been “terribly frustrating,” Casey said, and the senator doesn’t believe any determination by the State Department about wrongful detention status would impede efforts to release Fogel.

“Not only charges that were I think unwarranted, but the sentence that was handed down — of 14 years — horrific,” Casey said.

Congress passed a provision as part of its March appropriations bill calling on the State Department to submit a report on Fogel.

The House appropriations committee said it had “serious and growing concerns” regarding Fogel’s statu. It directed the State Department to explain why he has not been declared “wrongfully detained,” like other Americans held in Russia.

However, the office of U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, said the State Department missed its May 23 deadline, and Congress is still awaiting the report.

Family effort

Fogel’s sister, Lisa Hyland, of O’Hara said their family was able to get basic information from the briefing between the State Department and their congressional delegation, but much of the details were classified, and she doesn’t know why.

They also don’t know why Fogel has not been designated as wrongfully detained.

In the meantime, Fogel’s health — both physically and mentally — continues to decline, his sister said.

Fogel never complains when he calls, Hyland said.

“It’s not that they’re being punitive toward him, (but) he’s not getting any medical care or preventative care.”

Fogel tries to call his 95-year-old mother once a week, Hyland said.

Malphine Fogel continues to work on her son’s behalf.

“That’s what keeps me going — trying to get my brother home while my mother’s still alive,” Hyland said.

The family hears rumors that the American government is working on a deal that would bring home Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained since March 2023, and former Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned for more than five years.

“We just want to make sure he’s included in that, if that’s the case,” Hyland said.

She and her family did get reassurance that representatives from the U.S. government will be sure to visit Fogel quarterly as regulations allow. This past year, she said, they visited twice, six months apart.

“They committed to saying they are going to visit and be more consistent,” she said.

Fogel’s family, former students and supporters continue to try to bring attention to his imprisonment, lobbying members of Congress, writing letters and sharing documentaries and art work.

Hyland said she and her mom will meet with U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, next month.

“We’re doing the same kind of things we’ve been doing,” Hyland said. “It’s just trying to reinvigorate that effort.”

Lower profile

Peter Maggs, a research professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign’s College of Law, is an expert in Russian law.

In the late 1970s, his two children attended the Anglo American School in Moscow where Fogel taught.

He said he is not surprised the U.S. government has not yet declared Fogel wrongfully detained.

“The State Department faces hundreds of Americans picked up on drug charges all around the world and doesn’t declare them wrongfully detained,” Maggs said. “In some sense, he’s just another one of them.”

And the U.S. demanding release on humanitarian grounds is not likely to be successful, he said.

“This is so highly politicized, I don’t think that would have any great weight,” Maggs said.

Instead, it could come down to offering Russia something it wants.

“There’s always a question if the U.S. government signals they really want a person, the price goes up,” Maggs said. “That’s a complex game for the State Department to have to play.”

As a teacher, Fogel is much less high profile than an Olympic basketball champion or a Wall Street Journal reporter, Maggs said.

“To the extent he’s a lesser bargaining chip, the State Department may be making lesser offers for him.”

Ideally, Maggs continued, it would be a package deal to get everyone there out.

“I think, unfortunately, every time we exchange somebody, Russia attempts to take another hostage,” Maggs said. “If they come across someone who can be useful as a hostage, they take them.”

Maggs believes Russia would release all Americans in its custody if the United States would agree to stop all aid to Ukraine.

He also said that, in the past, adverse publicity might have worked.

In the buildup to the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Russia released dozens of political prisoners, Maggs said.

But that’s not likely to work now, he continued.

“I don’t think it would matter. Russians can’t get any worse publicity than bombing women and children in Ukraine.”