Why aren't we trading the Russian arms dealer for Marc Fogel instead of Griner?

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OAKMONT, Pa. - The "other American" imprisoned in Russia has a name, too.

He was always just Mr. Fogel to the students he entranced with lectures about the Cold War. But he is Marc Hilliard Fogel on his well-worn passports, abundantly stamped from his many years of teaching International Baccalaureate history courses at schools attended by the children of U.S. diplomats and the global elite in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia and, for the past 10 years, in Russia.

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Fogel's plight parallels a similar case that has played big on news websites, led cable newscasts and prompted White House pronouncements: the trial of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who also was arrested for attempting to enter Russia with a small amount of medical marijuana. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States has made a "substantial proposal" to Russia to secure the release of Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year Russian sentence on spy charges he has denied.

Marc Fogel's wife, Jane Fogel, said in an interview after the news broke that she's still hoping her husband can be included in a swap. But those hopes are fading, she said, speaking publicly for the first time about her husband's case

"There's a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind," Jane Fogel said Wednesday after the announcement about the possible swap including Griner and Whelan. "It's terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan."

In suburban Pittsburgh, Jane Fogel has been watching the Griner case spool out and wondered whether her husband has been forgotten. Griner's wife, Cherelle, received a call from the president. The Fogels have been stalled at the mid-functionary level of the U.S. State Department. Speculation about a possible prisoner swap before Blinken's announcement on Wednesday had earlier trickled into his Russian prison cell, compounding his anxiety.

"That hurt," Marc Fogel wrote in a letter home referencing the prisoner-exchange reports. "Teachers are at least as important as bballers."

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On Aug. 14, 2021, the Fogels landed at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow after the long flight from New York on the Russian airline Aeroflot. When they deplaned, Jane noticed they were in a different terminal than usual with more security, a change from the lax environment they'd encountered in previous years. She stopped at the restroom and her husband went ahead to the security checkpoint.

When she caught up with him, she could tell something was wrong. His breath had quickened so much that his mask was inflating and deflating like a balloon.

"Jane," he said, "I'm really in trouble."

He'd packed 14 vape cartridges of medical marijuana into his suitcase, stuffing some in his shoes, and placed some cannabis buds in a contact lens case, his wife said. Jane said she had no idea he'd done it. But why take such a risk?

"It's pretty simple," his son Ethan said of his father's plan to bring medical marijuana into Russia. "He thought he could get away with it."

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