American school teacher Mark Fogel, who was released by Russia after three and a half years in prison, was welcomed by United States President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday after Fogel flew in from Moscow, Reuters reports.
"I feel like the luckiest man in the world right now. I'm a school teacher who's now in the world all over again," Fogel said, an American flag draped around his shoulder.
Trump, standing next to Fogel in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room, said: "He looks damn good to me."
The release of 63-year-old Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since August 2021 and was serving a 14-year sentence, came as Trump seeks to improve relations with Moscow as part of efforts to secure an end to the war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Trump said Fogel's release "could be a very important part" of ending the war in Ukraine.
He and Fogel thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his release.
"We just wanted to bring him home," Trump said, adding that he would take Fogel on a tour of Lincoln's upstairs bedroom in the White House.
Trump said another person would be released today, but did not say who it would be.
He called the terms of Fogel's release "very fair."
Fogel was released when Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in Moscow unannounced on Tuesday to pick him up. On the plane home, Fogel, who is from the US state of Pennsylvania, was shown holding a raised glass, a plate of cheese and his US passport in a photo posted on social media by Trump's top hostage envoy, Adam Behler.
Asked what the US gave up in exchange for Fogel, Trump earlier told reporters: "Not much" and called the release a demonstration of good faith by the Russians.
"Russia has treated us very nicely. In fact, I hope this is the beginning of a relationship where we can end that (Ukrainian) war and millions of people can stop being killed," Trump said.
Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling after being detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana in his luggage.
Marijuana is medically prescribed in Pennsylvania, where it is legal, said Martin De Luca, a member of Fogel's legal team.
Witkoff's plane landed in Moscow a few hours before he left with Fogel on board, flying through central Europe and back to Washington, De Luca told Reuters.
"We are extremely grateful, relieved and overjoyed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband and son, Mark Fogel, is finally returning home. This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today we begin to heal," the Fogel family said in a statement.
Dmitry Ovsyanikov, who was Fogel's Russian lawyer in the past, told the Russian news agency Interfax that Fogel was transferred last week from a prison in Rybinsk, north of Moscow, to pretrial detention in Moscow before being released.
Fogel was left out of a historic prisoner exchange in August that included 24 prisoners - 16 sent from Russia to the West, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and eight people returned to Russia from the West.
Bonus video:
