President Trump secured the release of Americans in captivity in Russia on Tuesday as part of the Kremlin negotiated with Mr. Trump’s special envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
American Marc Fogel, a teacher, was arrested for bringing medical marijuana to Russia, the Kremlin was released and traveled abroad on Mr. Vidokoff’s plane. Although he began to sentence 14 years in prison in June 2022, Mr. Fogel was wrongly detained by the Biden administration at the end of last year.
New York billionaire real estate director, Mr. Vidoc, close friend of Mr. Trump, has been secretly negotiating the deal, even though when his appearance in Moscow flew on his private plane and reminded the online flight tracker, His presence in Moscow became evident. This is the first well-known trip to Moscow by senior U.S. officials in an attempt to invade Ukraine since then-CIA Director William J. Burns flew to the Russian capital in November 2021.
In the direction of the president, Mr. Witkov brought Mr. Fogel out of Russia as part of the exchange, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said in a statement. But he did not provide any details about whether the United States or allies release someone, or other measures the government has taken to win Mr Fogel’s release.
“President Trump, Steve Witkoff, negotiated a exchange with the president’s adviser, which showed the sincerity of the Russians and we are moving in the right direction,” Walz said. , to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine. ”
It is unclear who Mr. Witkov met and whether other matters, including Ukraine, were part of any discussion. White House officials declined to comment on the issues. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov did not respond to a request for comment. He told reporters earlier in the day that he had no “no information” about Mr. Witkov’s plane’s arrival.
However, during the discussions for several days, the deal was a goodwill gesture for both parties, aiming to smooth the conversation path of the Ukrainian war and potentially improve relations between Russia and the United States.
This underscores the Russian leader repeatedly praised Mr. Trump in the weeks since his inauguration after President Vladimir V. Putin’s efforts to establish warm ties with the new administration. It highlights the constraints that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found himself, and Mr. Trump established the channels for Moscow while deeply doubting Kiev.
In a statement, the Fogel family thanked Mr. Trump for ensuring his release.
“Our father, husband and son, Marc Fogel, was finally grateful, relieved and overwhelmed, and finally returned home.” and Sam.
American hostage envoy Adam Boehler said in an interview on CNN on Tuesday that another American would be released Wednesday, but didn’t say anything from.
Mr Fogel’s release feels different from past Russian spy swaps or prisoner exchanges. These exchanges involve Russians flying detainees to other countries (such as Turkey) that have swap exchanges. However, Mr. Vivov flew directly to Moscow, a very different arrangement, which may mark a new way of doing business with Russia.
According to multiple people who have passed on the situation, Mr. Vickoff’s role goes beyond the task of releasing detained Americans, who speak anonymously to describe sensitive arrangements. Mr. Trump has a history of assigning multiple people to implement a single goal. When Mr. Trump appointed retired three-star general Keith Kellogg as the special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, he also assigned Mr. Vidokov to play a role in the peace process.
The people said that a few weeks ago, Mr. Trump secretly authorized Mr. Vikov to expand his portfolio outside the Middle East with the goal of opening negotiation channels with the Russians. Mr. Trump trusts Mr. Witkov, who has been friends with him since the 1980s and tells people on a personal level that he believes real estate developers have the right negotiating skills to help end the war in Ukraine.
However, the exact authority of the government on the issue is unclear.
Before people visited Moscow, Mr. Vidokov had a direct discussion with Mr. Putin’s close allies. They said he also discussed Ukraine with Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The states of the Persian Gulf have long tried to play the role of mediators to end the conflict.
It is unclear whether both Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin both said – both sides said – but senior Trump administration officials would usually realize that such calls say they could not confirm that this happened.
Mr. Trump promised to end the Russian-Ukrainian war within 24 hours during the presidential campaign. But Mr. Putin showed a willingness to try to surpass Western support for Ukraine, and he has been eager to make concessions. Although Mr. Trump said he planned to use sanctions or other tools to squeeze Mr. Putin’s finances to force him to negotiate, it is unclear that Ukraine should expect to get shipping times for basic weapons from the United States.
Mr. Trump said he hopes Ukraine can provide hundreds of billions of dollars in rare earth minerals to provide U.S. security assistance since the war began. He announced on Tuesday that he would send Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with Mr Zelensky.
“This war must and will end soon,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media website. “Too much death and destruction. The United States has spent billions of dollars around the world and there is little to show,” he wrote on his social media website. of.”
According to several retelling the plan to the Ukrainians, Mr. Best was directed to explore the transaction of rare earth minerals with the Ukrainians.
Mr Zelensky told Reuters in an interview with Reuters that he is willing to accept a deal to allow the United States to use rare earth minerals in exchange for security guarantees.
Mr. Trump continued to express his suspicion of Mr. Zelensky in private, who believed he had taken advantage of the generosity of the United States. Mr. Trump is also unwilling to provide Ukraine with any form of U.S. security assurance, which is part of any settlement.
The president’s comments in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News about Ukraine’s future once again bring his vision for the end of the war and his support for the country’s sovereignty.
“They may reach an agreement, they may not reach an agreement,” Trump said of Ukraine. “One day they may or may not be Russian.”
Mr. Trump appears to be loudly presenting in an interview aired on Monday, but any questions the U.S. president has made about the future of independent Ukraine are deeply disturbing to officials in Kiev.
Mr. Putin and many Russians believed that Ukraine was the former Soviet republic and a legitimate part of Russia, and even questioned its independence before the war. On the other hand, Ukrainian nationalism has intensified since the Russian invasion three years ago, causing alarming losses since then.
Representatives of the Trump administration are expected to discuss their plans to end the Ukrainian war at this weekend’s Munich security meeting. Russia – Ukrainian special envoy Kellogg will attend the meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
Mr. Vance plans to meet with Mr. Zelensky of Munich. The meeting may have laid the foundation for a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky in Washington. Mr. Trump said he will meet with Ukrainian leaders soon and is expected to speak with Mr. Putin.
Mr. Fogel’s allies have been arguing with the Russian authorities that they should release him as a gesture of the new Trump administration.
Mr. Fogel’s 95-year-old mother, Malphine Fogel, is a resident of Butler, Pennsylvania and a supporter of Mr. Trump. She attended Butler’s rally in July when an assassin shot and killed Mr. Trump in the ear. Ms. Fogel met him before the rally and intended to join his stage, a plan that was overturned by the attack.
Mr. Fogel’s allies hope he will be included in the large prisoner trade in August to free former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovic ( Evan Gershkovich). But the Biden administration did not urge Mr. Fogel to be included because at the time Mr. Fogel was not classified as wrongly detained because of the amount of marijuana he brought to Russia.
Mr Fogel’s legal team said his release was “long as long as possible”.
“After years of bureaucratic inaction, including consistently refusal to designate Mark as wrongly detained, President Trump received Mark’s release in just a few weeks without hesitation to take decisive action to bring Mark back home,” the lawyer said in a statement.
For Mr. Putin, the decision to release Mr. Fogel was a change in the position he accommodated during the Biden administration. When former Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked Mr Putin to release Mr Guskovic in an interview last February, the Russian president shot backwards: “We made a lot of good intentions to As for me, we’ve used them up.”
Ivan Nechepurenko Contribution report.
