Editorial: Say Marc Fogel's name and bring him home from Russia, Mr. President

What about Marc Fogel?

The return of WNBA star Brittney Griner to the United States after being freed from a Russian penal colony is gathering much attention, just like her arrest for possession of a cannabis oil vape cartridge and the 10 months of State Department haggling over her release.

For some, Griner’s homecoming is the story. For others, it is the other American often mentioned as a second half of a prisoner exchange — Paul Whelan, a former Marine arrested in 2018 and convicted of espionage in 2019. Whelan did an interview with CNN on Thursday expressing his frustration at being left behind as Griner’s plane flew off.

But while Griner and Whelan’s names have become well known over the past year, another is mentioned less often.

Fogel does not have the celebrity status of a professional athlete. He doesn’t have that James Bond cachet of an accused spy. (For the record, Whelan and the U.S. government deny the espionage charges.)

Fogel, 61, is just a teacher from Oakmont who educated diplomats’ kids at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He was arrested six months earlier than Griner on similar charges. He used medical marijuana for the chronic spinal pain he has suffered for decades. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in a maximum- security penal colony.

Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, often brings up Fogel’s name in interviews about Griner and Whelan. For him, it is personal. Fogel was his son’s teacher.

McFaul agrees with the Pennsylvania congressional delegation and others who have been lobbying for the Biden administration to take one important step that would afford Fogel’s case the urgency of Griner’s and Whelan’s.

Fogel is not designated as wrongfully detained. He should be.

Fogel has devoted his professional life to educating the children of government officials. He deserves to have his government acknowledge that.

His sister, Lisa Hyland of O’Hara, doesn’t begrudge Griner her rescue. She just wants to know her brother is important to U.S. officials, too. That doesn’t happen when the attention is now focused on Whelan, as it was when President Joe Biden spoke Thursday.

“He has never said my brother’s name that I’m aware of,” Hyland said. “It would be nice if they would at least mention him.”

Perhaps that is the first step that needs to be taken to bring Fogel home. Say his name. Make it the household word that Griner’s has been this year. That attention brought heat and light to her case, making it impossible to forget. The same is happening with Whelan now that he is the poster child for Russian detention.

Without that attention, Fogel will be easy to forget. That can’t be allowed to happen. Say his name, Mr. President.