GOP Senator Calls On Russia To Free American Imprisoned For Medical Marijuana ‘Immediately’

“Marc’s arrest was politically motivated and President Biden should have immediately designated him as wrongfully detained in 2021.”

By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan

The U.S. Department of State has designated a U.S. citizen with ties to Montana who is imprisoned in Russia as “wrongfully detained,” according to the office of U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT).

The designation triggers actions that prioritize the release of an American detained abroad.

Daines, a Republican, announced the designation of Marc Fogel as “wrongfully detained” in a news release Monday and praised the State Department for it.

In the news release Daines also renewed calls for Fogel, a school teacher, to be “immediately released” by the Russian government.

“Marc Fogel just spent his fourth Christmas serving an unjust 14-year sentence of hard labor in a Russian prison because he was ‘convicted’ of outrageous drug trafficking charges,” Daines said in a statement.

Fogel is serving a sentence of hard labor in a Russian prison for possession of marijuana.

The international baccalaureate history teacher was arrested in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in August 2021, States Newsroom’s Washington, D.C., Bureau earlier reported.

Fogel was convicted in 2022.

In an interview with States Newsroom in 2023, Fogel’s family said he suffers from chronic pain from numerous surgeries and uses medical marijuana as part of his pain management regimen.

In 2023, Fogel’s family members met with White House and other U.S. officials, including Daines, about his case.

“We’re letting [lawmakers] know we’re still here, we’re still waiting, we’re still pushing,” Marc’s sister Anne Fogel, of Missoula, told the D.C. Bureau of States Newsroom; States Newsroom is the parent organization of the Daily Montanan.

At the time, Daines said he had been pressing the Biden administration to “escalate efforts” to bring him home, and he also called for Fogel’s release on the Senate floor.

It’s time to bring Marc Fogel home. He’s always been wrongfully detained, now he must be released.https://t.co/9xJLz1dkbg

— Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) December 31, 2024

In August 2024, the White House announced it had secured a deal to bring back four other Americans unjustly imprisoned in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Fogel was not part of that group. In response to a question about what he would tell Fogel’s family, President Joe Biden said, “We’re not giving up on that,” according to the White House briefing.

In the news release this week, Daines, a Republican, said it’s time for Fogel to come home.

“The State Department finally acknowledged what we have always known: that Marc’s arrest was politically motivated and President Biden should have immediately designated him as wrongfully detained in 2021,” Daines said in the news release. “He should be released immediately.”

Fogel is from Pennsylvania, and lawmakers from Pennsylvania also had been pushing for the State Department to designate him as “wrongfully detained.”

This story was first published by Daily Montanan.