American teacher released after nearly 4 years in Russian captivity

WASHINGTON — Presidents love to bask in the patriotic glow of bringing hostages home — none more than Donald Trump.

Negotiations over prisoner swaps can be tough and the prices can be high, and experts warn that quickly giving hostage-takers the concessions they want gives them incentives for further kidnappings. But the immediate rewards are unambiguous: Americans, regardless of party, want their compatriots back.

A trade executed Tuesday returned Marc Fogel to the United States after years of imprisonment in Russia in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, who pleaded guilty in the United States to money-laundering charges. Fogel, a teacher who was jailed for possessing marijuana he used to treat chronic pain, wore a U.S. flag across his shoulders as Trump greeted him at the White House on Tuesday night.

“He’s made bringing Americans home a top priority, and people respond to that,” the U.S. special envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, told reporters Wednesday. “Usually, he’ll empower his team. He’ll say, ‘I want this person out.’ We come up with options. He approves them and then usually makes calls after” to secure deals.

With the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looming and little apparent progress having been made toward ending the war, Trump's quiet move this week may soften Washington-Moscow relations. That, in turn, could help lay the groundwork for the deal Trump has promised to bring the hostilities in Europe to a close.

"The smartest thing you can do to curry favor with the president of the United States is bring Americans home," Boehler said. "He's been clear about that."

Administration officials would not disclose what, if anything, else Moscow may have gained in the negotiations beyond Vinnik’s freedom. In the past, Russia has repeatedly refused to release detained Americans without receiving in return its citizens who are of top importance to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin insisted, for instance, on the release of a Russian assassin imprisoned in Germany as part of a prisoner swap President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated last fall.

“The Trump administration traditionally has framed these victories as something that they got without giving anything up,” said Dani Gilbert, an assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University who studies hostage negotiations. “It’s really difficult for me to imagine a world in which the Trump administration’s statements about Ukraine in the last 48 hours were not quid pro quo for Fogel’s release.”

On Wednesday, the Trump administration outlined new parameters for a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine that are far more generous than any from the Biden administration. In a speech in Brussels on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed the framework, which appeared to favor Putin’s demands that Ukraine not recover all of its lost territory and that it not be admitted to NATO.

Trump also held separate phone calls Wednesday with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he tasked his top national security aides with negotiating an end to the war. Vice President JD Vance plans to meet with Zelenskyy this week on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich.

Republicans in Congress, with Trump's support, cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine in 2023. Democrats warned that Trump would abandon Ukraine, handing Putin a long-sought victory. Trump has insisted that he secure a peace deal that does not reward Moscow.

How it happened
Trump assigned Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend who is his special envoy for the Middle East, to take the lead on engaging with the Russians about a deal for Fogel. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, U.S. officials have not engaged with Russian officials directly, except in rare cases of coordination between military leaders to avoid accidents in combat zones.