U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday vowed to prioritize the release of Marc Fogel, an Oakmont history teacher who has been detained by Russia since bringing a small amount of legally prescribed medical marijuana into the country in 2021.
Rubio’s comments came during a nomination hearing before the U.S. Senate. The Florida senator fielded questions from other senators who are considering his nomination to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
Republican Dave McCormick, Pennsylvania’s newly elected senator, asked Rubio if he would make Fogel’s freedom a top priority.
“Absolutely,” Rubio said, adding he already has been involved in those conversations.
If Russian officials aren’t willing to release Fogel, Rubio said, “then I think the chances of improving U.S.-Russian relations are impossible.”
Fogel’s release won’t solve problems in relations between the countries on its own, Rubio said, “but it is, at a minimum, the kind of thing you would hope to see if anyone’s serious about improving relations.”
Fogel’s family and various officials have vocally advocated for his release.
“We need to bring him home,” McCormick said Wednesday. “It took far too long for the State Department to designate Marc as wrongfully detained by the Russian government. It was really a gut punch to many of us in Pennsylvania that Marc wasn’t included in the swap last year.”
Fogel last year said it was “incomprehensible” to him that he wasn’t included in a multinational deal in which Russia freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
“It’s like I’m in a bottomless pit, and it keeps getting worse,” Fogel said in a phone call from a Russian prison at the time.
President Joe Biden’s administration in December granted Fogel “wrongfully detained” status, a designation that allows an American special envoy to negotiate for his release and permits the family to access much-needed resources.
Fogel was arrested Aug. 14, 2021, after returning to Moscow from Pennsylvania to begin his 10th year teaching history at the Anglo-American School in Russia.
Fogel, then 60, had medical marijuana with him when he landed at Sheremetyevo Airport. He had been prescribed medical marijuana after three back surgeries.
He was arrested, tried and convicted of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana.
“This particular case, this has nothing to do with politics,” Rubio said during Wednesday’s hearing. “No one can claim — nor do they — that he’s a spy or that he’s involved in a national security threat. So this is a case that has to be elevated.”
Fogel, who was sentenced to serve 14 years in a Russian maximum-security penal colony, has been hospitalized at least four times since his incarceration.
“This is a ridiculous case,” Rubio said.
As head of the State Department, Rubio would conduct negotiations with foreign leaders on behalf of the Trump administration.