In a Russian Interior Ministry handout from January, Butler native Marc H. Fogel is shown on security footage being detained in August 2021 at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. Fogel was charged with drug smuggling and possession by Russian authorities and sentenced to 14 years in a Moscow prison. Tucker photo
Malphine Fogel reacted with gladness and frustration on Thursday morning when told WNBA star and Russian prisoner Brittney Griner had been freed in a prisoner exchange.
“I’m glad for her,” said Fogel of Butler, whose son, Marc, 61, has been held in Russian prison for 14 months. “I think she got a bum deal too, but it makes me sad that the others are not held in that high regard because they’re nobodies.”
Marc Fogel, a 1980 Butler Senior High School graduate, was detained in Russia at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021. His subsequent sentence of 14 years in Russian prison was issued in June.
Fogel, a previous employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, entered the airport to begin his final year as a teacher at the Anglo-American school in Moscow.
He was found to have 17 grams of marijuana, just over half an ounce, in his luggage, along with a prescription for the medical cannabis and a letter from his doctor confirming his need for the substance due to severe back issues.
Russian authorities charged him with smuggling, but his family and others feel he was targeted when someone told airport authorities he was in possession of medical marijuana.
Malphine Fogel said when Griner was charged on Feb. 17, the family thought all Americans detained in Russian prisons on tenuous charges might be lumped together in a potential release.
“But with the Ukraine situation, I don’t think (Vladimir) Putin is going to do any favors for Americans,” she said.
She said while she is not sure of Griner’s reason for possessing marijuana, her son required it to comfortably conduct his daily life.
“The tragedy is he needed it,” Malphine said. “He never sat through dinner without getting up and walking around because of his back pain.”
She said when he taught at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, school officials built him a standing desk to ease his back discomfort.
“It was medicinal,” Malphine said of the 17 grams of medical marijuana Marc possessed.
Malphine said Marc has been able to call fairly regularly as of late. The calls are connected through the Russian embassy.
Marc will not allow his relatives to ask many questions about himself or his conditions, which she is sure her son is prohibited from doing.
“He sounds pretty good,” Malphine said. “He’s teaching an English class (in prison.)
Marc has told the family he is able to walk outside sometimes, and Malphine gets the impression he is being given medication for his back issues.
“He always wants to know about the Steelers and Pitt,” she said.
The family was upset to learn he was being given injections for his back issues, and the Pittsburgh attorney fighting his incarceration contacted her Russian counterpart to have the injections stopped.
She said unlike Griner, who was housed in a former Soviet Gulag made into a women’s prison, Marc is in a prison about a two-hour train ride from Moscow.
The family hopes he is not transferred, but Malphine said she is not sure if they would be notified if he were.
She hopes Griner’s release will in some way help the case of her son, which the family has been publicizing and stressing to government officials.
Marc’s sisters have traveled to Washington, D.C. multiple times to talk with U.S. State Department officials about their brother’s incarceration in Russia.
“Really, what else can we do? We’ve written letters to everyone,” Malphine said. “I think we’ve done everything we can do.
Until his release, Malphine will lean on the strength of her family and read the letters Marc’s American students have written about him.
“He had an amazing impact on his students,” she said. “He is a good man.”
Mike Kelly, R-16th, released a statement Thursday about the situation.
“I am pleased to hear the news that Brittney Griner was released this morning and is returning to the United States. However, I remain deeply disappointed that the Biden administration was not able to secure the release of Marc Fogel,” Kelly said. “I urge the administration to include Mr. Fogel in any future negotiations, and I am once again calling on the State Department to further designate Mr. Fogel as 'wrongfully detained.'
“He is serving 14 years for possessing 17 grams — or just over half an ounce — of medical marijuana. That is egregious, even under Russia's current laws.”
Kelly continued, “This is a great day for the Griner family. I hope to see the Fogel family have the same reunion soon. To the Fogel family: we are not giving up on bringing Marc home.”
Friends, supporters and former students of Butler native Marc Fogel held a rally in October outside of the White House in Washington D.C., to urge the government to gain his release from prison in Russian. Submitted Photo
More on the effort to have Marc released is available by searching “Friends of Marc Fogel” on Facebook.
A Thursday morning post by the page’s administrator, Dan Sweeney, noted Griner’s release and asked everyone to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken advocating for Fogel’s release.
Blinken’s Washington address is U.S. Department of State, 2201 C. Street NW, Room 7226, Washington, DC., 20520.
In this image made from video provided by Russian Federal Security Service, WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner sits in the plane as she flies to Abu Dhabi to be exchanged for Russian citizen Viktor Bout, in Russia Friday. Russian Federal Security Service via AP
