The Biden administration’s continues to fail U.S. citizen and Oakmont resident Marc Fogel, who was convicted in Russia of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. In June, a Russian court sentenced Fogel, 61, to 14 years’ imprisonment at a labor camp. On Wednesday, his family announced that he had been transferred from his detention center to the remote hard-labor prison.
Fogel’s case must be a top priority for every Pennsylvania legislator in Congress. They need to keep pressing the State Department to give the educator the same status, “wrongfully detained,” as other, more celebrated American prisoners in Russia.
While WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained in Russia for a similar offense, continues to grab headlines and the State Department’s attention, Fogel’s plight remains largely invisible outside western Pennsylvania. A New York Times headline on Thursday read, “Brittney Griner’s wife said that, in a rare phone call, Griner feared being ‘left and forgotten.’”
