Trump Admin Wins Freedom for Another American Held Abroad

President Donald Trump on Wednesday secured the release of another American held hostage abroad.

The American citizen, whose name has not yet been publicly released, had been held in Belarus, which shares a border with Russia and is aligned with Moscow.

The Trump administration also secured the release of two other prisoners, including Radio Free Europe journalist Andrey Kuznechyk, who was arrested in November 2021. It was a celebratory moment when he was reunited with his wife and two young children in neighboring Lithuania on Wednesday. 

“We remain committed to the release of other U.S. citizens in Belarus and elsewhere. We call for the release of nearly 1,300 political prisoners who remain in jail across Belarus,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on the release.

Also released this week was Marc Fogel, an American teaching in Russia who had been held in prison there for more than 3-1/2 years. In a White House press conference, Fogel praised the new administration for its efforts to secure his release. 

“I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now,” Fogel said. “And I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero.”

Fogel also thanked the State Department and members of Congress for getting him released. Some members of Congress had introduced the bipartisan Marc Fogel Act, which would have required the State Department to “submit to Congress information relating to cases of United States nationals detained abroad in which the Secretary has not made a determination or has determined that there is not credible information that the individuals are being detained unlawfully or wrongfully.”

Fogel had not been publicly classified as a “wrongfully detained” American until almost three years into serving his sentence of 14 years of hard labor in Russia. 

“These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. I am in awe of what they all did,” he said.

Fogel’s family had criticized the Biden administration for not making him a priority in prisoner-swap negotiations with Russia. 

“It is inconceivable to us that Russian dissidents would be prioritized over U.S. citizens in a prisoner exchange,” Fogel’s family said in 2024. “Marc has been unjustly detained for far too long and must be prioritized in any swap negotiations with Russia, regardless of his level of notoriety or celebrity.”

The Biden administration had secured the release of two high profile American hostages, Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Brittney Griner, an Olympic gold medalist and WNBA star. 

At the White House gathering at which Fogel, 66, was welcomed home, the president told a story of how Fogel’s mother had asked him to free her son during the 2024 presidential election. 

“And when I saw the mother at a rally, she said, ‘If you win, will you get my son out?’ And, I promise. She’s 95 years old. And I said, ‘We’ll get him out. And we got him out pretty quickly,’” Trump remarked. 

“I think my 95-year-old mother is probably the most dynamic 95-year-old on earth right now,” Fogel said with a smile. 

Several Americans remain detained in Russia on a variety of charges. On Friday, Vice President JD Vance and Rubio will meet in Munich with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

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