Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Russia, which the U.S. has condemned as a wrongful detention, after a small amount of medical cannabis was found in his luggage.

Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher who had been held in Russia since 2021, arrived back on U.S. soil late Tuesday night after the White House announced earlier in the day that it had negotiated his release.

President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East is leaving Russia with Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was jailed in Russia and deemed “wrongfully detained” by the United States, according to a statement from National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.