❗️ ‘We were treated VERY NICELY by Russia’ – Trump

💬 “I hope that's the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war,” US President Donald Trump said, commenting on the return of American citizen Fogel, who is on his way home.

About Fogel, who's returning home from imprisonment in Russia:  (there was a statement memo from the White House today. The White House announced that Russia has released American citizen Marc Fogel, who was serving a sentence for drug smuggling. In 2022, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison after being detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in the summer of 2021. More about:

Who is Mark Fogel, imprisoned US National for whom Trump's Special Envoy traveled to Moscow?  

🌏 A 61-year-old former employee of the US Embassy, Fogel was detained in August 2021 at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport with his wife after arriving from New York. Authorities found marijuana and hashish oil in his luggage. 

🌏 During further searches, investigators discovered that Fogel's wife managed to dispose of evidence at the couple's apartment before law enforcement's arrival. She was later released and sent home. 

🌏 Fogel was charged with large-scale smuggling and possession of drugs. In 2022, a court outside Moscow sentenced him to 14 years in a maximum security prison.

🌏 Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said Fogel and his wife had diplomatic status until May 2021. One theory suggests that he might have used this status to organize a drug supply channel into Russia, targeting students at the Anglo-American school where he taught. 

🌏 Special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow to secure Fogel's release on Tuesday, with the gesture seen as a positive step for warming ice-cold US-Russia relations and possibly impacting efforts to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end.